The Red Moon Collection - 5 - The Empty Night
by TSarr
Summary: The galaxy is thrust into its most desperate hour. Will, Eleena and the rest of their crew will fight to see themselves through the war... no matter how slim their odds may be. /Volume 5 of the Red Moon Collection\
1. Chapter 1

****Disclaimer****

While this story contains all original characters the universe is entirely the property of EA and Bioware.

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><p><strong>The Red Moon Collection - 5 - The Empty Night<strong>

**Chapter 1**

_**Hub One, City of Pugnax, Altakiril**_

"You want your fucking teeth knocked out?"

Will rolled his eyes, gently sipped from the drink in his hand and leaned an elbow on the bar. He set the glass down and reached up to itch a spot on his chin that was buried in the brown beard that hung from his jaw. For a moment he had trouble locating the source of the discomfort in the tangle of stiff dark hairs, accompanied once in a while by the rare gray strand. There weren't nearly enough to be noticeable at a quick glance, but they were appearing just often enough to remind him that they would inevitably spread unchecked. After finally vanquishing the itch he sighed in relief and picked up his drink once again to take another sip.

"Hey!"

The fuming human dockworker grabbed Will's jacket in his fists and yanked him a step away from the bar, causing nearly half the contents of his drink to spill from the glass and splatter onto the floor. The man's breath stank of too much drink as he leaned in in an obvious attempt at intimidation. Will glanced over the shoulder of the gruff, irritable local to where a lavender-skinned asari stood watching intently. The pale wing-like patterns beneath Eleena's eyes scrunched ever-so-slightly as she squinted subconsciously in focus, waiting for the situation to deteriorate beyond recovery. Will's gaze snapped back to the glass in his hand as the last of the liquid lost trickled down the side onto his fingers.

"I _was _planning on drinking that," he remarked indignantly.

The man swatted clumsily at Will's hand, knocking the glass to the floor.

"I don't fuckin' care!" The dockworker blurted out. "Now say it again! I fuckin' dare you!"

"I've already repeated myself once," Will reminded him. "But since you insist, I'll repeat it for a third time: shut the fuck up so I can talk to my bondmate."

The man tightened his grip on Will's jacket and pulled him closer as he bared his teeth in yet another primal attempt to frighten him.

"Oh, I'm _so sorry. _Were we being too loud?" Mocked a nearby turian.

The turian was one of the five people sitting from where the human dockworker had charged Will. They all wore the same style of jumpsuit and were laughing and muttering between each other as they watched the confrontation for themselves.

Will glanced over to them. "Yeah, shithead, you were. I couldn't hear the goddamn conversation that _I _was a part of. Which, let me tell you, is an incredible feat. My wife has a _big _mouth."

Eleena rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. Will met her flustered gaze and shrugged.

"You don't come into my bar and tell _me _to shut up!" The human dockworker exclaimed.

Will fixed his eyes back on the large man still holding onto his jacket. "Oh, come on. This isn't your bar."

"_I'm_ here every night of the week!" The human bellowed. "So if _you _think you're just gonna-"

Will opened his mouth and let out a long, exaggerated yawn.

For whatever reason, the dockworker had clearly taken that as the final straw. He clenched his teeth and cocked his fist up behind his right shoulder. Admittedly, Will hadn't expected the quick turn of his temper and raised his brows in surprise. Just before the fist came barreling down a bar stool flew into the man's back and knocked him forward. Will stumbled to the side as the dockworker fell to his knees and a batarian stood over him with the stool in hand. A shriek rang out as one of the patrons not involved in the dispute jumped up from her table and ran toward the door, followed by a handful more.

Will nodded once to the batarian. "Thanks, Mag."

The batarian laughed and tossed the stool to the side. "You bet, boss."

"Stupid move," Eleena chided from a little ways down the bar.

Will and Mag followed her eyeline to the side where the dockworker's five friends were scrambling up from their table. The closest, the turian that had mocked Will earlier, was just reaching forward to grapple with them as Will raised his hands in defense. A biotic burst punched him in the chest, toppling him back as Eleena leapt to Mag's side.

"Probably gonna regret that," Will reminded her. "Security here doesn't take kindly to biotics."

"I'd love to see them try and cuff me," she said with a grin.

Another one of the dockworkers jumped forward and swung a fist at Mag, which the batarian easily dodged and returned with a swing to the gut. The human that had first instigated the fight grabbed the bar and pulled himself up with his eyes set on Will. He growled and leapt in as the others did. Will darted to the side and turned his concentration solely to himself and anyone who decided that he was their prime target. Mag and Eleena could handle themselves just fine. The dockworker grunted and swung hard at Will's head. Will could have sworn the balled first brushed some of the hair in his siderburns. He countered immediately with a low kick to the knee to knock the dockworker off balance just in time for another one of his friends to come in screaming.

This one he wasn't as prepared for. Will coughed as a sharp right hook caught him square in the stomach. With the wind knocked out of him, Will held up his hands for balance and stumbled back a few feet before his hands caught a chair to give him stability. His initial antagonist saw the chance and jumped for it by pulling himself up and leaping into Will's torso, pulling him to the ground. Still trying to catch his breath, Will struggled from being thrown onto his back only to be hit hard on the cheek. Then, like a miracle incarnate, Eleena wrapped her arm around the dockworker's neck in a choke hold and yanked him back with all her strength. Will followed up in perfect time as though they were cogs in a well oiled machine. He pulled his legs up and braced his feet against the man's chest before kicking off hard and sending them sliding apart.

"Thanks, babe!" Will called as he finally drew in a deep breath.

"Don't fuck up next time," she teased.

Eleena spun and punched a charging turian in the jaw. The turian fell as she recoiled and grabbed her fist.

"Sonofabitch!" She yelped. "Damn turian leather!"

"Bet you're wishing you'd inherited some of that from your dad," Mag chimed in as he planted a roundhouse kick to another human aggressor.

Eleena shook off the pain and clenched her teeth. "It doesn't work that way! Why do they always think it works that way?" she mumbled under her breath.

As Will turned and readied his arm for another punch the door of the bar pinged and slid open.

"Everybody put your hands in the air!" Barked a turian marching through the doorway.

Will immediately complied and looked over to see three members of the Altakiril Security Agency pushing their way into the center of the room.

"What the hell is going on here?" The turian officer asked.

Will sighed and proceeded to answer. "I was trying to-"

"I'm not asking you!" The officer snapped.

The turian nodded toward the bartender that stood in the corner. "Those two got into an argument about something," the bartender replied. "The one guy," he pointed to the dockworker, "was about to hit the other one. Then the batarian hit him with a bar stool and it kinda all went to shit."

The turian looked back to one of the other officers. "Any blood?"

"Na," he replied. "Doesn't look like it."

The turian officer pointed around the room. "I want everyone out _now._"

Will grumbled and activated his omnitool to close out his tab before shuffling toward the door. A few of the dockworkers bumped into him as they neared the door. He ignored them and stepped to the side after exiting the bar, waiting for Eleena and Mag. They appeared not long after and watched as the six dockworkers gathered up to mutter irritably to one another. The three security agents came out behind them and split up between the two groups, with two of them heading toward the dockworkers and their turian leader approaching Will, Eleena and Mag.

"I don't want to see this shit happen again," the turian ordered firmly.

"Won't be a problem," Will assured him. "We're leaving the city in an hour or so."

"Spacers, eh?" The officer pointed around the group. "Let me see your IDs."

The three of them activated their omnitools as he pulled up his own and gathered the data. "Been here a few times, I see." He made a few taps on the screen. "I'm putting a note on all your immigration files. This happens again and you're barred from exiting your hangar on any subsequent visits. You violate _that _and you're barred from landing clearance for three years."

"I hear you," Will replied.

"Good. Now get back to your hangar and stay there for the remainder of your stay." He glanced over his shoulder. "I've got citizens to deal with."

Will, Eleena and Mag promptly turned and began their walk down the hall of Hub One's main commercial district toward the elevator that would take them to the hangar levels.

"I can't believe we got off that easy," Mag muttered quietly.

"It's not that surprising," Will responded. "Altakiril's relatively small and they can't afford to lock people up for too long."

"Oh, so you knew. Is _that_ why you were egging that oaf on?" Eleena asked. "Or were you just really dying to get punched in the face?"

"That guy was an asshole," Will remarked plainly. "All I did was ask him to keep his voice down."

"And you said it so politely, too!" Eleena said with more than a hint of sarcasm.

"Regardless," Will said flatly. "Thank you for preemptive strike, Maglin."

The batarian chuckled. "Wasn't just gonna let him clock you in the face."

He'd known the batarian for nearly half a standard year now, yet Will was still surprised when Mag so earnestly stepped up to have his back. Out of the half dozen or so deckhands that the _Trueshot _had seen over the past six years Mag was far and away Will's favorite. The dark-skinned batarian reached up and wiped a tiny bit of blood from the corner of his mouth that Will was thankful the security officer had not seen.

"I appreciate it," Will reiterated. "And thank _you _for the biotic intervention with the turian," he continued as he turned his eyes toward Eleena.

The asari gave him a playful grin. "And?"

"And getting that huge son of a bitch off of me," Will said with a sigh.

"You're quite welcome," she said while snickering to herself.

The trio slowed as they reached the elevator and waited for a few seconds as it hurried to meet them. The door pinged excitedly as it slid open to reveal an empty elevator car. Will entered and punched in the level for their docking bay before activating his omnitool and sending a call request out. A few seconds later a turian woman with deep blue markings beneath her eyes appeared on screen and gave Will a respectful nod.

"Hey Corintha, we done offloading or what?" He asked.

The turian looked up and out of the sight of her omnitool camera's view. "_Almost. We have three more pallets and then we're ready to head out for Euntanta."_

Will grumbled. "From freezing cold to burning hot, lovely."

"_Yes, sir." _She affirmed.

"Well, tell the people doing the unloading to pick up the pace. We're headed back to the ship now," he informed her.

"_Aye, sir. Anything else?"_

He shook his head. "That's it. We'll be there in a moment."

Will cut the connection and looked up. Eleena and Mag stood to the side talking as the elevator ascended toward the top of the Hub structure. The car ground to a quick halt and pinged once again as the doors slid open to deposit them near their docking bay. The three of them walked casually down the hallway and through the security checkpoint for their hangar before entering the enormous enclosure that housed the _Trueshot_. Will smiled warmly at the sight of the old turian vessel. When he and Eleena had first embarked alone with the ship over five years ago he had been worried that it would never feel quite the same as the _Hyperion._ Thankfully, he was soon proven wrong. The _Trueshot_ felt just as much a home to him as the _Hyperion_ had been, and it came with the added bonus of military-grade hardware and construction. Eleena headed toward the personnel airlock on the port side of the ship as Will and Mag walked toward midship where the cargo airlock was open.

The ship's large delivery was almost finished being unloaded, just as Corintha had reported over the comm call. The turian stood right on the lip of the cargo bay airlock with a holopad in hand and attentive eyes scanning all the crates sitting on the floor of the hangar. Corintha had proven herself a hard worker and invaluable asset to the crew in the three years she had been with them. She started out as a deckhand, but soon convinced Will that the ship needed someone to help manage and schedule cargo and deliveries. He couldn't argue. By that time the _Trueshot_ was almost always at cargo capacity and Will was getting far too frustrated managing, for all intents and purposes, a flying warehouse.

"Everything okay?" Will asked.

"Perfect," Corintha replied. "Just making sure I counted correctly."

Will reached the cargo bay airlock and jumped up to climb in. The airlocks, both cargo and personnel, were suspended a few feet off the ground when the ship sat on its landing gears. Will turned and offered a hand up to Mag before turning back to Corintha.

"The three pallets?" He asked.

"Still here," she said, motioning back into the cargo bay. "I'm waiting on them to return with the heavy-duty lifter."

Will grunted and turned toward the interior of the ship. "Mag, stick around help them when they show up with the lifter."

The batarian stepped up beside Corintha to read over her shoulder. "You got it."

Will looked to the side as he neared the cargo bay's aft door. The armory and workbenches that lined the wall had long been taken over by mechanical components and other assorted pieces of hardware. He felt a tinge of nostalgia for the years past when his rifle used to hang above one of those shelves. Now it sat in a footlocker in the closest of his and Eleena's quarters. His hardsuit remained in the bunkroom locker, ready for the rare occasions that they made delivers to less-than-hospitable worlds. But the shielding hadn't taken a gunshot in years. He stepped through the door and walked down the port hallway to the stairs that led up to the command level. Will rounded the corner and spotted Eleena in the copilot's seat as he had expected. She glanced over her shoulder upon hearing his footfalls and beckoned him over before turning back to the engineering holopanel in front of her.

"We ready to blast out of this place?" She asked hopefully.

"Still waiting on three more pallets to get offloaded," Will replied as he slipped into the pilot's seat.

"They've had five fucking hours to get this done, what is their port authority doing?" Eleena asked.

Will grinned and leaned back. "Sending their dockworkers to fill up the local bars, apparently."

She snorted and closed out a few windows on her panel. "Oh, of course!" The asari glanced over and scrunched up her nose. "Are you gonna shave that damn beard soon?"

Will frowned. "I thought you liked it!"

"I like the hair on top of your head," Eleena explained. "But I don't like being pricked when I kiss you."

He reached up and ruffled the hair on his chin. "I suppose I could shave it. I was really just trying it on for size."

"Then let the record show that it doesn't fit," Eleena quipped. "Doesn't fit my tastes, at least."

"Well if it doesn't please _you_ then what was thinking?" Will remarked.

She laughed softly and closed out that which remained on the engineering panel. "Do we have anything lined up after the delivery to Euntanta?"

"I think so, but you'd have to ask Corintha to be sure," he replied. "I was actually thinking of letting her and Mag handle the rest of this shipment."

"Alone?" She inquired.

"Yeah, sure. We could take a few days for ourselves."

Eleena turned in her seat to face him. "Mm, I like the sound of that. Assuming the beard is out of the equation."

Will smirked and shot her a sideways glance. "You could've said something about it weeks ago, you know."

"I'm just fucking with you," she chuckled. "Did you have something in mind?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, maybe head back to the apartment for a day or two then head to the Citadel?"

Eleena nodded in consideration. "I could do that."

The comm panel chimed. Will reached forward and accepted the requesting link.

"_Captain, they're pulling the final pallet off now,"_ Corintha informed them.

"Great," he replied. "We'll get departure clearance and prep for takeoff."

"_Affirmative."_

Will looked over to Eleena. "Want to do the honors?"

"Goddess, do I," she answered. "There's nothing I love more about this damned ball of ice than leaving it."

* * *

><p>Their departure was perfectly ordinary. Will was actually surprised given the mark on their record that the security officer had allegedly given them. The crew got a decent night of sleep during the seven hour FTL flight from Altakiril to the Xe Cha system, after which Will ate a quick breakfast and headed back to the cockpit to prep them for the relay jump. He was half way through the pre-jump checklist when Corintha came hurrying up the stairs loud enough to wake a drunken volus. Will placed his arm on the back of the pilot's chair and looked over to see her sliding to a halt behind him.<p>

"Captain, come with me," she urged.

Will furrowed his brow. "Is the comm system down?"

The turian shook her head and beckoned him with one hand. He sighed and canceled out of the mass stabilization sequence before pulling himself to his feet and following her back to the stairs.

"Is there a problem?" He asked, now slightly worried.

"There's… something," she replied quietly.

Will frowned and continued down to the first level as she led the way to the crew's quarters. As he stepped inside he could see Mag sitting at the dining table staring intently at the viewscreen on the wall. Eleena was leaning against the table with her hand covering her mouth and an unreadable look of concern in her eyes. She too stared at the viewscreen. Corintha stepped to the side and crossed her arms over her chest.

Will had seen a lot in his life, but none of it had prepared him for what he saw on the screen. The stream of video appeared to be from Earth, somewhere in North America by the looks of it and the camera was capturing aerial footage of a city some ten or fifteen miles away. His eyes fell on the image of a purple and black object, seemingly the size of a starship, as it descended from the sky. Then another. And a third. Claw-like appendages bloomed from the underside of the vessels just before they impacted with the ground, undoubtedly crushing whatever was beneath them.

"Where is that?" Mag finally asked.

Will broke from his temporary trance and forced his eyes to the skyline. "I think it's Chicago."

Silence fell over them for a few moments. The alien figures on screen were now taking slow, ominous steps among the city's buildings.

"Are those what they've been whispering about the past few years?" Eleena asked slowly.

Will looked to the headline at the top of the screen.

_DEVELOPING - Earth under attack by unknown force_

"What does this mean?" Corintha asked desperately.

One of the dark, distant figures suddenly illuminated as a red beam shot from its body and pierced through a superstructure. The building listed for a brief moment before the damage finally took its toll and brought a large portion of it crashing downward.

Will shook his head slowly. "It means we're not going to Euntanta."


	2. Chapter 2

****The Red Moon Collection - 5 - The Empty Night****

**Chapter 2**

_**ISV Trueshot, Xe Cha System**_

The crew spent the next few hours watching the news broadcasts in seldom broken silence. The headlines developed slowly from issuing warnings across the Sol system about an "unknown force" to more broad galactic emergency signals. This unknown enemy was being sighted in various systems. Most of the time they merely passed into a system, traveled between relays, and continued onward. But occasionally they would stop, their numbers would soar, and they would attack, as they did with Sol. It was the sightings outside the Sol system that truly scared Will. After official reports confirmed the activity and hostilities on planets other than Earth, Will stood up without saying a word and headed to the upper deck.

"Where are we going?" Corintha asked.

Glanced back over his shoulder to see Eleena, Corintha and Maglin following him through the command center and toward the cockpit.

"Nowhere," Will replied. "Not yet at least. I'm going to bring us out of prep for the jump. I want to stay in range of the comm buoy until we've got a plan."

He slid into the cockpit and began closing out the command windows on the holopanels around him. After a short pause he looked over to where Eleena stood with her arms crossed.

"We need to find Shansa and Kallux immediately," he decided. "Can you get a message out to them?"

"Of course," Eleena replied. "That won't take long. Anyone else?"

"Yeah, anyone you can think of," Will said. "Kay and T'Lees, Fynnis, Vayren, Malylen, Nellie, Adren, Samuel… hell, even Tyrixis if we still have her ID around."

"On it," she answered while jumping into the copilot's seat.

Corintha was busy typing away on her omnitool while Maglin simply read through messages on his.

"Messages are away," Eleena informed him. "I just sent them all the same thing. Short and sweet."

"Thanks," Will replied.

He stared down to the deck of the cockpit and hoped the distress was not as apparent on his face as it was in his mind. Little tidbits of news and rumors from the past few years continued to resurface in the back of his thoughts. The news networks had shown a few images comparing the invaders with the ship that had assaulted the Citadel a few years back. The widely accepted explanation of the attack was that the unimaginably large vessel was the geth's flagship. What they had wanted with the Citadel and why a rogue Spectre had led them there had yet to be answered. But Eleena was the quick to doubt the Citadel authorities on their official explanation. She was adamant that the geth had not built the ship, _Sovereign_, for a myriad of reasons. Given how much he trusted her on the matter, Will believed her. But that still left them with no real answers.

But there were rumors. Theories. The most prominent being that which was championed by a few high ranking officials within the Alliance navy, and even the newly appointed human councilor: the Reapers. At the time, Will and Eleena had both agreed that it sounded a little too crazy to be taken at face value. It didn't sound crazy anymore.

"I found something," Eleena announced.

Will broke from his trance and glanced over to her. "Hm?"

"Live updates about compromised systems, relays and planets," she informed them. "I'll feed it into our systems and set it to update whenever we're in range of a comm buoy."

"Do you see anything about Khar'shan?" Maglin asked.

The asari shook her head. "There hasn't been any communication from the Harsa System for over eight hours."

"None?" The batarian asked. "The whole system?"

Eleena frowned. "The Hegemony is secretive, right? Maybe this is just their plan to avoid all of this. Go silent and hope no one notices them."

"I'll have to hope so," Maglin replied. "Most of my family is on Camala. Only a day or so flight away."

"Do you want me to check on Camala?" Eleena asked.

He shook his head. "Appreciate it, but I sent them a message hours ago and just heard back. They've seen the news, but no one's come for them yet. Friendly or foe."

"I'll keep us here for another few hours while we wait to hear back," Will decided. "But I'm bringing us away from the relay and just barely in range of the comm buoy."

"So what do we do until we leave?" Corintha asked.

"Whatever you want or need to," Will answered. "Watch the news feeds, write messages to people you need to get in touch with…" He activated the flight controls and adjusted their heading. "Or you can join me down by the workbenches. I for one have a lot to do to get my rifle and hardsuit back in working order."

"Itching to get into a fight, are we?" Eleena joked wryly.

He smirked. "No, just getting ready for an inevitable one."

* * *

><p>It felt good to get his hands on his rifle again. Will had spent the past three or four hours carefully examining every last inch of the weapon for any defects, misalignments or settings in need of adjustment. There were many, of course. He had not used it extensively since the manufacturer had sent over the modification kits that would allow it to utilize thermal clips. He and Eleena had taken their weapons to a shooting range after doing the modifications themselves and were content with their work, but if serious trouble arose then Will wanted to be on the top of his game. Eleena thought so as well, as she had spent most of those hours at his side working on her own weapon.<p>

Corintha and Maglin came and went, sometimes working on their gear and sometimes just giving them updates on the news feeds. Will's heart sank as he heard preliminary news about Earth's fate. Two of the Alliance's fleets had been "lost," a phrase so vague it almost seemed worse than simply "annihilated." The planet itself seemed to be in complete disarray. Will lost count of the number of times he forgot what he was doing after becoming lost in thought after worrisome thought.

"I'm starting to think we need to clear off some of this shelf space and reopen the old _Trueshot _armory," Eleena said, hoping to lighten the mood.

"Let's not get ahead of ourselves," Will cautioned. "We're not into any trouble yet."

"Just trying to think proactively," Eleena remarked.

Corintha was looking through the crates in the cargo bay and compiling a list of recipients that would need to be informed of delivery delays. She chuckled at Eleena's comment.

"If you want to be proactive I'd suggest getting those cannons up to speed," she advised.

"The cannons are working fucking _flawlessly, _thank you," Eleena remarked boldly. "And if you need proof, we can stop by the wreckage of both of those pirate vessels we destroyed after getting ambush a few months ago."

"If you say so," Corintha conceded. "But there's no such thing as over calibrating on those things. Especially when you're relying on them."

"Once again, we're not relying on them," Will interjected. "Not yet at least."

The three of them returned to their tasks for the next few minutes. Maglin entered and began searching through one of the storage closets for a soldering torch, apparently to make a quick fix on his boots. As Corintha hummed softly to herself and scanned a few of the final crates her omnitool chimed to indicate a message urgently requesting her attention. She tilted her head curiously and opened the message, only to widen her eyes in shock.

"Oh my…" She muttered. "Captain?"

Will looked over his shoulder with a raised brow. "Hm?"

The turian looked up and lowered her arms to her sides.

"I've been recalled to active duty," she said flatly. "The message just came through."

"You're a reservist?" Maglin asked.

They could see the shock on her face as she shook her head. "No."

"Shit," Eleena muttered as she looked up from her workbench. "That's not good, is it?"

"It means the powers that be know a lot more about what's going on than we do," Maglin surmised. "At least the Turian Hierarchy does."

"Might just be playing it safe," Will reasoned.

They watched quietly as Corintha looked back down to her omnitool and scanned the rest of the message. "It looks as though I must return to Palaven to rendezvous with my old unit."

Will furrowed his brow. "You're actually going?"

The turian nodded once. "Of course. If Palaven comes under attack I must be there to defend it."

"You're more noble than I," Maglin said quietly.

Will shook his head. "Cori, that's..."

"It's my duty," she interrupted. "I'm sorry, sir, but I can't ignore this. I know the three of you do not feel terribly close to your homewords, but I..." Corintha took a deep breath. "I can't turn my back on mine."

Will knew he was being selfish and frowned at himself for it. He pushed his personal concern to the side and gave her a nod.

"Okay. We'll get you to Palaven."

"No need," she quickly objected. "I can get transport from Aephus. We're only one relay jump away and the shipyards there will no doubt be sending vessels to the homeworld like clockwork."

Eleena turned and crossed her arms. She wore a deep frown on her face. Corintha and Eleena had grown very close over the past few years, and Will had assumed that the asari would also be reluctant to see their crewmate and friend depart. Unlike him, however, Eleena was often more persistent with her opinions.

"Are you sure about this?" Eleena asked firmly. "You may have been born and raised there, but your home is where you make it."

"Come on, Eleena," Corintha said with a bittersweet cadence. "You know I have to go."

The asari looked to the side and shifted uneasily, but said nothing.

"We'll bring you to Aephus," Will reiterated. "Whatever you need."

"If that's true, then perhaps we can kill two birds with one stone," Maglin asserted. The batarian took a deep breath. "If you two think you can handle yourselves, I'll disembark on Aephus as well. That place sees a lot of neutral traffic so I can probably catch a civilian transport to Camala."

"Camala?" Will asked. "Being out here is probably as safe as it's gonna get until they beat this back."

"I know," Mag assured him. "And I appreciate your concern for my safety. I really do. But I need to be with my family."

A silence fell over the room as they all waited for the inevitable resolution of their planning.

"So that's it?" Eleena finally asked.

Will frowned. "I guess that's it."

Eleena looked to both Corintha and Maglin. "I want updates from you two whenever you can," she demanded. "And if you need help-"

"I think I'll be okay," Corintha said lightly. "I wouldn't be surprised if the whole damn turian fleet was moving to orbit Palaven as we speak."

"Fair enough," Eleena admitted. "But you, Maglin…"

The batarian nodded. "I'm staying hopeful, but if things take a turn for the worse on Camala I may make the call for help."

"We'll be there," Will assured him.

"I suppose I should start packing my footlocker," Corintha said. "Are we departing soon?"

With a regretful sigh, Will nodded and turned back to finish the last of his work. "Yes," Will answered. "I want to stay on the comm buoy for another hour or so. Just in case we hear back from anyone. After that we can head through. Then it's probably another, oh, twelve hours to Aephus."

"Aye, captain," Corintha acknowledged.

* * *

><p>Will was trying his best to hide it, but he was scared. Scared for what they might find when they jumped through the relay for Aephus. Scared of what could happen to his friends after they dropped them off there. Scared of what they might hear when the old friends that Eleena had reached out to finally responded. And even more scared of not hearing back at all. He glanced out of the corner of his eye to see Eleena still quietly staring to the side, lost in her own thoughts. It took a lot to shake her like this. That scared him too.<p>

Most nights the idle hum of the _Trueshot _served well enough to lull Will into a timely sleep, but tonight it did not. Eleena lay beside him in the bed, having had trouble falling asleep herself. Fortunately for her, she eventually found rest where Will still could not. After an hour of laying in the dimly lit captain's quarters, Will reached over to grab the holopad and a book that sat on the bedside table. He dimmed the display as low as possible and set the translucent screen over the book to actively translate the words on the page from the asari dialect it was printed in into English. It was a book Eleena had given to him on his birthday just a few weeks ago. Sadly, he had been short on time since then and was only a few chapters in.

It was the first in a "classic" asari romantic adventure series first printed six centuries ago. The protagonist, a maiden by the name of Aenoa, was currently infiltrating a Terminus gang in search of information regarding the disappearance of her best and most trusted friend. She had just met a young, roguish turian that Will had already pegged as the love interest. He tried to focus on finding where he had left off during his last reading session, but soon resigned himself to laying his head back and sighing in exasperation.

"Mmph, you still awake?" Eleena mumbled face-down in a pillow.

"Having trouble sleeping," he replied.

She yawned and rolled onto her back, but kept her eyes closed. "Something wrong? Other than the obvious."

"Na, just the obvious," Will said with a small smirk. "I do wish Shansa or _anyone_ had gotten in touch with us before we had to lose the comm buoy though."

"We'll hit one near Aephus," Eleena sleepily assured him. "Don't worry yourself over it. She's fine."

"I hope so," he said, trying to convince himself.

Will closed the book and shut off the holopad before setting them both on the shelf and rolling onto his side to drape an arm across Eleena's bare stomach. The asari reached up and gave his hair a gentle ruffle. Only then, much to his relief, did Will's eyes drift shut as long-sought sleep washed over him.

* * *

><p>Eleena surveyed the row of bags and footlockers that lined the wall of the cargo bay. She counted only one of each for Corintha and one extra bag for Maglin. For the batarian this seemed to be about right. He had only been with them for a few months. But Corintha had been on the <em>Trueshot<em> for over three years. She had far more belongings than what could fit in just those two small containers. Eleena turned and made her way back to the bunkroom where she had last seen Corintha and Mag to find them idly chatting while searching through their lockers for anything they might have missed. Or at least, that is what Eleena assumed they were doing. But the turian was bypassing dozens of articles of clothing that were being left to hang in the locker.

"Uh, forget anything, Cori?" The asari asked curiously.

Corintha looked over to Eleena and shook her head. "I'm going to be leaving some of my clothes on board," she explained. "I've already asked Captain Hume and he said it would be no problem."

Eleena nodded. "Not much use for your civilian clothes on this little trip?" She hoped the joke would mask her lingering concern.

"Precisely," Corintha answered. "I told him to simply throw them into the storage compartments if you all need the space."

"If you say so," Eleena replied. "Mag, you all good?"

"Just doing one last check, but I think I've got everything ready to go," the batarian said as his eyes scanned the nearly empty locker.

The ship-wide comm broadcasting system pinged.

"_Hey everyone, we're dropping out of FTL in two minutes," _Will's voice echoed. "_Should be docking at the orbital station another three minutes after that."_

The comm crackled as the transmission concluded. Corintha reached to the door of her locker and slid it shut with a thump. She glanced to the side where Eleena was standing and fluttered her mandibles in concern.

"I'm going to be fine," the turian said. "Really. We don't even know if Palaven is in danger."

Eleena grunted and shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "I know, I know. Just going to miss having you around. You too, Mag."

"I am pretty damn endearing," Maglin quipped as he closed his own locker.

The asari smiled. "Come on, let's strap in."

They pulled down the jumpseats located on the empty starboard wall of the bunkroom and strapped in for the exit from FTL. About a minute later the ship let out a low rumble as the faint sounds of the FTL drive spinning down echoed through the hull. They folded the seats back up and made their way to the command deck where Will was situated at the helm. Eleena placed her hands on the back of his seat and looked through the viewport. The planet was growing before them, along with what looked like dozens of ships.

"Damn, that's a big fleet movement," Maglin remarked.

"I'm guessing the majority of it is from the turian reserve fleet," Corintha informed them. "I'll try to get a ride on one of them."

Will adjusted their trajectory toward a space station that was about ten thousand kilometers away in high orbit. "We're going to be docking at a civilian station," he told them. "Hopefully they won't be rigorous with their background checks and discover we're flying an _allegedly_stolen ship."

"I'm sure there are dozens of shuttles going to and from the station and the fleet," Eleena guessed. "Shouldn't be hard to get on one, Cori."

"Exactly what I was thinking," she replied.

"_ISV Trueshot, please state your intent for docking,"_ a voice interrupted over the comm.

Will scoffed. "Hailed them nearly three minutes ago and they finally respond." He reached over and opened the cockpit mic. "This is _ISV Trueshot_, I have passengers who wish to disembark and catch transport to other systems."

"_Our civilian services aren't on schedule at the moment,"_ the operator warned them.

"But they are still operating, correct?" Will asked.

"_Yes. Sporadically,"_ they answered.

He looked back over his shoulder to see Maglin give him a quick nod. Will turned back and cleared his throat.

"That's alright with us. We'd like to request a berth with fuel services," Will said.

"_Understood. Please proceed to Bay 4," _the flight control officer requested.

"Bay 4," Will repeated. "Got it in sight. Thank you, control."

Will guided the _Trueshot_ into its berth as Corintha, Maglin and Eleena headed back down to the cargo bay to move their equipment to the airlock. After completing the docking maneuver and putting in a refueling request, Will opened up the comm panel and sent through the immigration forms for Corintha and Maglin. Thankfully, the two of them hard far cleaner records than both he or Eleena. After receiving confirmation he locked down the controls and proceeded to the lower deck to join the others. They were just setting Corintha's footlocker down in the airlock as Will entered and approached the group.

"We ready to open up?" Eleena asked upon hearing him.

"Should be," Will answered. "Assuming the airlock door doesn't object."

Maglin stepped over to the control panel on the wall and shook his head. "Nope, connection is solid."

Will slowed to a stop by the open interior airlock door and turned his eyes to Corintha and Maglin as they came to stand by their things.

"Need help carrying them to your boarding gates?" Eleena asked.

Maglin shook his head. "I already looked at the flight schedule. I've got a little while before anything heading my way leaves, so I can help Corintha with her footlocker."

The turian nodded thankfully. "I appreciate it. There is a shuttle headed for one of our carriers that departs in twenty minutes."

Will took a deep breath. "So is this goodbye?"

Corintha gave him a sideways glance before turning to face him fully. "Only for now."

He smiled softly. For some reason her confidence was quite reassuring, which struck Will as odd. He was usually far too cynical to be swayed by the charisma or optimism of others.

"I'm gonna miss you two," Eleena said as she stepped forward to pull Corintha into a hug.

The turian reciprocated gladly. "As will I. And I assure you, we'll see each other soon." She looked to Will. "The turian navy takes care of its people. I'll be in good hands."

Will reached forward and offered her a hand. She took it and shook professionally.

"They're the best of the best, from what I hear," he said.

Corintha knelt and threw one of her bags over her shoulder as Eleena turned to Maglin and pulled him into a hug as well.

"Stay safe," she ordered him. "I mean it, Mag."

"Don't need to tell me twice," he laughed. "Or once, for that matter."

Will turned and offered Mag a handshake as Eleena stepped back. The batarian grasped his hand and shook once.

"Take care of yourself," Maglin said to Will while motioning toward Eleena. "Take care of her, too."

Will chuckled. "She's going to be taking care of _me_, buddy. And the ship for that matter."

"Glad someone corrected him," Eleena teased.

Mag and Will released each others hands and stepped back. Corintha and Maglin stood in the decontamination chamber as Will and Eleena stared back at them from across the threshold of the airlock door. All four of them put on their bravest faces as Mag reached over and tapped a button on the control panel, sending the door slowly sliding shut. Will closed his eyes as it came to rest and locked into position.

"They'll be okay," Eleena said gently while placing a hand on his shoulder.

"Fuck, I hope so," Will mumbled.

A light on the airlock's inner control console swapped from green to red, indicating the decontamination sequence had begun. Eleena's arm slid from Will's shoulder to around his waist, pulling him into her side in a small hug. They watched the airlock for nearly a minute before an orange light on Will's wrist caught Eleena's eye.

"You've got a message, babe."

Will blinked and turned his head down to his wrist. He lifted his arm and activated the omnitool, bringing up the newly received message.

"It must have come through when we got in range of the comm buoy," he said.

Relief filled him like a warmth he couldn't put to words.

"It's from Shansa," Will read.

Eleena leaned over to read for herself.

_On Korlus and we need help. Coordinates attached._

"Korlus," Will muttered quietly.

"Sounds like we've got our destination," Eleena said.

Will grabbed the coordinates and forwarded them to the cockpit's nav computer. "Let's go see what trouble they've gotten themselves into."


	3. Chapter 3

****The Red Moon Collection - 5 - The Empty Night****

**Chapter 3**

_**ISV Trueshot, in orbit over Korlus, Imir System**_

"I'm not getting anything on the normal _Aberrant _frequencies," Eleena said.

Will shook his head. "Me neither. Nothing on the short range either."

"We're probably out of range," the asari reasoned. "I don't want to, but I think we're going to have to head down to the surface."

The two of them had already gone over the risks associated with approaching Korlus. The planet was barely more than a graveyard for tens of thousands of ships, but somehow its population kept growing. Apparently stripping the corpses of long-forgotten starships was more fruitful than Will would have guessed. The local powers, both governmental and otherwise, had sent out multiple warnings that they would be taking defensive measures given the recent "incursions" in human and batarian space. This included the revival of dozens of planetary defense stations scattered around the planet's surface. While many had been inactive for decades or even centuries, these points of defense were essentially giant anti-ship cannons pointed at the sky. Not something Will or Eleena wanted to risk messing with.

"Do we have a map of the known defense stations?" Will asked.

"Yeah, but it's old," Eleena answered. "About twenty years to be precise."

He shook his head. "No way they've built more of them since then," Will reasoned. "Not if they were being systematically shut down over the past century."

Eleena nodded. "I agree."

Will looked over to a holopanel at his right that displayed the planet with a single blue waypoint: the coordinates Shansa had sent them. Eleena tapped a button on her console which activated dozens of red points scattered across the surface.

"Wow," Will muttered. "They've almost got as many surface to air installations as Earth."

"Most of them are hundreds or thousands of years old," Eleena informed him. "A good portion are probably completely inoperable."

"I'm guessing we don't know which ones?" Will asked hopefully.

She smirked. "Come on, how easy did you think this was going to be?"

"Never hurts to ask," Will said with a shrug. "Alright, so if we head down to the surface I think these two are probably in range of the coordinates that Shansa sent us."

"I wish we still had that Kodiak," Eleena grumbled.

He sighed. "We needed the space in the cargo bay."

"I'm not second guessing the decision," she said quickly. "We weren't exactly planning for a galactic emergency when we sold it."

Will put his hand to his chin and pondered the map. "So we should come in through here." He leaned forward and drew a rough flightpath. "We'll only get close to the defense cannons for about a minute, and if they're operable we can try to contact them and explain the situation."

"And if they don't respond well to strangers?" Eleena inquired.

"We bug out or dive below their firing angle," Will replied. "You think we can do this?"

She nodded without hesitation. "Yes. I'm going to grab my SMG, do you want me to get your rifle while I'm down there?"

"Sure."

Will spun to face the flight controls and began establishing their course to enter the planet's atmosphere. He planned a quick descent knowing that they had just filled up on fuel and kicked the ship's thrusters into gear. Korlus appeared to move beneath them and grew in the forward viewport. While the planet was well known as a massive junkyard it was incredible to see the true expanse in person. The continent the ship was descending toward looked like it was covered with a rough texture until they were close enough to make out depth on the surface. For miles upon miles the hulls of long-abandoned starships spread out like jagged, rusting hills as far as one could see. He honestly couldn't see or make out the ground beneath it all. Some ships lay flat, gracefully landed so that their bones could be easily picked clean by local scrappers. Others had been haphazardly crash landed, putting the ships down wherever and however they could. And finally there were a few terrifying specimens that appeared to have simply been left to deorbit. Those were little more than twisted craters surrounded by piles of metal hundreds or thousands of feet long and wide.

Will's eyes darted between the nav panel, his flight controls and the forward viewport. A few transparent holopanels were folded out in front of him to display his attitude indicator and distant waypoints on his port and starboard side where the defense stations were located. The _Trueshot_ was almost low enough for Will to disregard them as a threat, a fact for which he was quite grateful given the rapidly approaching coordinates that Shansa had sent them. The sound of metal boots on the deck echoed behind him until Eleena came to a stop beside the pilot's seat and placed her hand on the back of the chair.

"We're close?" She asked.

Will nodded. "Very. I need you to get on the scanner and keep an eye out for a place to land near the coordinates Shansa sent us."

The asari deftly slid into the copilot's seat and activated one of her instruments. "On it. I'll start sending out hails on the short-range frequencies as well."

The ship rumbled as it hit a patch of rough air, but continued powering forward. They were getting low. Dangerously so, in fact. The debris rose hundreds of meters into the air in many places, and Will wanted to keep some reasonable clearance between them and the ground.

"Almost there," he announced. "You got anything?"

"Yeah, yeah," Eleena replied excitedly. "There's a place close by that I think will work."

"How close?" Will asked as he threw the lower and forward thrusters into full burn.

The asari swiped her hand across the screen to call a new waypoint on his nav panel. "Right over there. Little over three miles away."

Will pulled the ship into a tight turn and set his heading to the landing zone Eleena had provided. He tried his best to concentrate, but was at times unable to keep his eyes from wandering the endless torrent of wreckage below him. Going off of just visuals, Will honestly didn't think Eleena's landing zone would was large enough to fit the _Trueshot_. But he gave her the benefit of the doubt and brought the ship directly over the cavernous hole below them. The empty space appeared to have been formed by a ship that had been left to deorbit and crash violently into the surface long, long ago. As the _Trueshot_ floated carefully toward the ground Will could see that their landing zone was far from level, but he figured it would have to do. He tapped a few buttons to engage the landing gears and slowed their descent to barely more than a crawl until the sound of metal screeching and crunching echoed through the wreckage that surrounded the ship.

"I think… I think we're stable," Will said.

He cut all the engines and held his breath as the _Trueshot_ shifted and settled.

"Nice landing," Eleena complimented.

She grabbed her helmet from its holding on her back and expanded it while standing from her seat. After slipping the helmet over her head and locking it into place she grabbed her SMG from its holster on the small of her back.

"I'll poke out and make sure everything looks okay while you run through the post-flight checklist," she decided.

Will had already begun on his half of the arrangement. "Good idea. And bring your gun."

She tapped the side of her SMG on his shoulder. "Way ahead of you, _captain._"

He smirked and continued onward with his tasks as Eleena looked down and checked her SMG's fire settings. With everything in order she hurried to the staircases and descended to the lower level of the ship where the airlocks were located. She entered the starboard decontamination chamber and secured the inner airlock before normalizing the atmosphere with a few commands on the control panel. She grunted irritably as Korlus's considerably heavy gravity began to prove noticeable in the idle moments. At long last the vents ceased the cycling of air and a green light appeared on the control panel, allowing Eleena to tap it gently with her left hand while gripping the SMG in her right.

The outer airlock door slid open. The _Trueshot_ had made it into the crater with only a handful of meters to spare, at least on the starboard side. Mangled and twisted metallic remains sprouted up from the floor before rising around the ship up to the mouth of the crater where they leveled off and disappeared into the hills of debris they had seen from the air. Eleena placed her hand on the bulkhead and peered out into the oddly shaped and stretched shadows. She activated her comm and slowly shifted her eyes around the landing zone.

"Things are looking good down here," she reported. "Anything come back on the comm systems?"

"_Nothing yet,"_ Will replied. "_Did you set it to run the full spectrum?"_

"Just the range that we used to run on our missions," Eleena replied as she knelt and found her balance before dropping to the ground.

"_Okay, I'm going to broaden it," _Will decided. "_And I'll forward any responses to your comm as well."_

"Sounds good," the asari affirmed.

The ground was covered in piles of metal, wiring and even some insulating materials. However, it was heavily uneven and irritated Eleena almost immediately as she took her first few steps. Each time she moved forward she was forced to gingerly nestle her toe or heel onto the ground to insure stability before putting her full weight down and taking the next step. She turned herself toward the stern of the ship and began to make her way toward the rear thrusters with a hand placed on the hull of the ship to help with her balance. As she reached midship a rustling sound caught her attention and brought her to a halt. Eleena snapped her head to the left in search of the source of the sound, but saw nothing more than shadows in the debris. She narrowed her eyes and turned to face the edge of the crater with her SMG held firmly in hand.

A yelp screeched out as a bulky varren came charging from a pile of debris near the bow of the ship. Eleena spun to face it and ignited her SMG as the beast charged toward her. The varren bellowed in rage as bullets sparked around it. A handful tore into its flesh, causing blood to gush from its arms and back and stain the already filthy ground. Eleena ejected her heat sink as it hit capacity and reached for another just as the varren pushed off into a terrifying leap directed at her center of mass. She reacted with a biotic shift forward through the varren to where it had just pushed off from the ground and spun to throw a biotic blast into the back of the creature. Without its intended target to break its fall the varren came tumbling to the ground just in time for the biotic attack to send it flipping head over tail. Eleena ripped a thermal clip from her belt and slammed it into the SMG just as the varren scrambled to its feet and twisted around to face her again. This time, however, her aim was true. Bullets tore into the varren's skull and sent it to the ground a motionless corpse.

"_What's going on? I see action on the squad status report,"_ Will asked promptly.

Eleena stared down the corpse of the varren and panted from the shock more than exertion. She took a deep breath to steady herself and turned to do another visual sweep of the area.

"Varren," she replied. "Big, nasty fucker at that."

"_Par for the course,"_ he quipped. "_You okay?"_

"Fine," Eleena replied as she lowered her guard.

"_Okay, I'm wrapping things up. Be down in just a minute."_

Eleena returned to her initial walk and finished her scan of their landing zone without additional interruptions. Just as she finished circling the ship she spotted Will jumping down from the airlock and shutting it behind him. He turned to face her with his rifle at the ready in his hands.

"We're clear," Eleena informed him before he could ask.

Will nodded. "Good. I've got the ship's comm system setup to forward any responses to us. For now, I say we head toward the coordinates Shansa sent us."

The asari nodded firmly. "Agreed."

He reached down and tapped a few commands into his omnitool, enabling the waypoint of Shansa's coordinates to appear on their HUDs.

"You know this means we have to crawl out of this giant garbage hole now, right?" Eleena lamented.

Will snorted and walked toward the incline. "Would you rather we land on the surface of the sea of debris?"

"I like the ship in one piece, so no," she replied irritably.

They made slow progress despite the relatively short distance to the lip of the crater. After a twenty minute ascent, Will finally took his final step onto the high ground and looked out across the horizon. Hulls of ships and the mountains of debris and scrap that surrounded them stretched on for miles in every direction. Some remnants that must have originated from ships the size of a dreadnought towered into the sky in the distance, casting vast shadows across the land. Eleena took a deep breath as she came to stand beside Will and joined him in surveying the view.

"Reminds me of Rakarn," she said.

"Swap out the dead ships with demolished buildings and you're spot on," Will agreed. "Oh, and sand. Lots more sand."

Eleena pointed toward the waypoint. "I see some areas that look clear enough to walk through."

"Good eye," he said as he took his first step.

The only way they could have hoped to scout their way was by air, and without wanting to risk attention by flying the _Trueshot _around low and slow once again, Will and Eleena opted to forge a path blindly. Luckily, they soon found that the path Eleena had spotted was one of many converging and diverging channels that weaved throughout the graveyard of ships. The occasional footprint led Will to theorize that the paths were used by the scavengers that made up a large portion of the planet's population.

"We're a little over halfway there," Will concluded approximately an hour into their walk.

"My feet are already killing me," Eleena grumbled.

He grinned. "You know it's important to exercise when you spend as much time in space as we do."

She shot him a smirk. "It's the gravity differential, jackass."

"Sure it is," Will chuckled.

"So have we heard anything back from them?" Eleena asked.

Will shook his head. "No. Not yet. But we did get a response from Kay and T'Lees a few minutes ago."

Eleena's looked over to him. "We did? What did they say?"

"I haven't read it yet," Will answered. "We've got enough to worry about finding Shansa and Kallux. I'd rather not get distracted... even if it's good news."

Eleena opened her mouth to argue, but decided against it and turned her eyes back toward their path. "I guess that makes sense."

"Did you send messages out to anyone else?" Will asked. "Other than those I asked about."

She nodded once. "Yes, a few people. Old friends mostly and some people on my father's side of the family that I've met on a handful of occasions."

"Man, that must be odd," Will said with a small laugh. "Outliving generations of nieces and nephews and cousins born centuries after you were."

"Odd to you maybe," she replied. "Asari don't even think twice about it."

"I guess you have had a few thousand years to get used to it," Will reasoned. "So only people from your dad's side? What about your mother?"

Eleena snarled.

He frowned and glanced over to her. "I know you two aren't speaking, but she _is_ your mother, Eleena."

"In the very technical most sense of the term, yes." Eleena purse her lips irritably. "She sure didn't act like one. Especially when it counted most."

"People change," Will reminded her. "Do you really want to risk never speaking to her again because of a grudge you have right now?"

"'Right now' being the last two hundred years of my life?" Eleena reminded him. "And this isn't just a _grudge,_ Will. The things she..." The asari shook her head and closed her eyes. "Fine. I'll send her message when we get back to the ship. But I'm not committing to anything more than that."

Will reached over and placed a hand on Eleena's shoulder. "I'm just trying to keep you from regretting something big for the rest of your life."

"I know, I know," she mumbled. "You're a fuckin' thoughtful, selfless angel and I'm a heartless wench, I know."

"Whoa, let's not go throwing around baseless accusations," Will said with a grin. "I've got a smarmy and cocksure reputation to uphold."

"That 'reputation' died years ago," Eleena teased. "Right around the time I slapped the presumptuous, asinine attitude off your face." She laughed and shrugged. "And _who _exactly was this supposed reputation held with?"

"Irrelevant," Will snapped.

She snorted and rolled her eyes. As they rounded the corner of a particularly large pylon that had fallen onto their path they stopped in their tracks and jumped to the side to find cover. Will tried his best to keep his landing quiet and grabbed the side of the metal sheet he had hid behind to peer out down the path to affirm the sighting.

"Two Blue Suns," Eleena whispered from her cover on the opposite side of the path.

"I see 'em," Will muttered. "Fuckin' Blue Suns."

"The travel advisory did warn about them," Eleena reminded him.

The two figures were well over fifty meters away and both too concerned with some piece of salvage to have seen or heard Will or Eleena.

"Looks like they're both engineers," Will observed.

"I was about to say the same thing," Eleena agreed. "Salarian and either a human or a batarian."

An orange blur appeared from behind the wreckage they were inspecting. They had drones working on some task, apparently, though it was not clear whether or not they were combat ready.

"What do you think?" Eleena asked.

"They're right in the damned way," Will sighed. "Maybe we can sneak by."

"We'd have to go off the trail," Eleena said. "And there's no fucking way they wouldn't see or hear us."

Will stowed his rifle. "Then let's just try to walk past them. There are millions of scrappers on this planet, there's no way the planetary government would tolerate the Blue Suns here if they just shot civilians on sight."

"You think we can get away with being civilians with this much gear?" Eleena asked.

"It's worth a shot," Will decided. "Come on."

He stood and stepped out from cover with Eleena at his side. Together they set a casual pace and began walking toward the pair of Blue Suns that were embroiled in a fierce discussion over their find. It seemed as though their drone was simply providing power to a mainframe computer still hanging from a slab of metal. The computer was emblazoned with what Will recognized as an old version of the turian navy's emblem. They were attempting to access something decades or centuries old.

"It won't work!" The humanoid objected. "They're similar architecture but from completely different eras."

"I'm not saying it needs to be fully compatible," the salarian engineer objected. "We just need to get through the lockdown layer. After that we're golden!"

As Will and Eleena approached, one of the two engineers spotted them out of their corner of his eye and spun to face them while grabbing his pistol from his belt.

"Stop right there!" The salarian shouted.

Will and Eleena complied and raised their hands.

"We don't want any trouble," Will said. "Just passing through."

The second Blue Suns engineer, who Will could now clearly identify as a human, set a hand on his holster.

"'Passing through,'" he repeated. "Turn your ass around and 'pass through' another route."

"We're on this path for a reason, shithead," Eleena replied. "Now let us walk by so we can get where we need to go. You don't want to stand in our way."

Will was less than pleased by Eleena's apparent disregard for diplomacy, and their two new friends clearly felt the same. The salarian engineer pointed his gun toward her and took a few steps forward.

"Are you _threatening_ us?" The salarian asked as though he was taken aback by the very thought.

"That's exactly what I'm doing," Eleena answered.

The first shot from the engineer's pistol struck Eleena in the chest and her shields rippled as they easily absorbed the bullet's energy. Before the salarian could even fire his next round, Eleena had flashed forward in a biotic charge to slam into the aggressor's chest. The salarian flew backward and skid across the ground as the second Blue Suns engineer lifted his SMG and began spraying shots toward the asari. Will grabbed his rifle from his back and strafed to the side in search of cover all while peppering the human engineer with shots. The salarian rolled and attempted to scramble to his feet, but was caught by salvo of Eleena's own SMG fire. He slumped to the ground as green blood spurted out of his back. The second engineer, seeing his partner dead, spun and sprinted as fast as he could. Will lowered his rifle as he rounded a corner and disappeared.

"Shit," he muttered as he ran to Eleena's position. "His officer isn't going to like this."

"Probably shouldn't have tried to kill me then," the asari countered.

Will took a quick look at the old mainframe that the two engineers had been investigating before turning his attention back down the path. "Come on, we should hurry and get to the coordinates before the Blue Suns decide to hunt us down."

Eleena stowed her gun and nodded. Together they set off in a jog toward the corner the human engineer had escaped around. As they reached it they found that the path split to the left and right. The left had a clear set of bootprints down the center while the right was poised to lead them directly toward the coordinates Shansa had provided them. They turned down the right path and kept their quick pace through the metallic jungle. They spent the next forty five minutes or so in near silence, both knowing that the other was attempting to stay alert and not be caught off guard the way they had been before. The path grew more and more winding as they progressed closer and closer to the coordinates, with many portions being covered by enormous slabs of metal armor plating that had once lined a long-dead ship's hull. After passing through the third such shadowy passage, a rifle shot rang out so close that Will thought his own weapon had discharged. They jumped in shock as a familiar voice called from above them.

"Not another step!"

Surprisingly, Will smiled at the order and turned on his heel. He looked up to the metal slab hanging over the path to where a woman stood with her rifle pointed at the sky. The sun hung directly behind her, providing Will with nothing more than the silhouette of the woman holding her weapon up warningly. However, instead of taking aim on Will for disregarding her order to stay still, the woman lowered her gun and leaned forward just slightly.

"Good lord… is that…" She thought aloud.

Will reached up and peeled his helmet from his head to reveal a beaming smile. "Good to see you too, Shan!"


	4. Chapter 4

****The Red Moon Collection - 5 - The Empty Night****

**Chapter 4**

_**The Wastes, Korlus, Imir System**_

In one fluid string of motions Shansa slid her rifle into holding on her back, ripped her helmet from her head and grabbed onto a metal pole that would guide her to the ground. She slid down and hit the dirt kneeling to break her fall with her eyes pointed to her feet. Will collapsed his rifle and stowed it on his back as he stared her down.

"You came," Shansa said with a hint of excitement.

Her eyes flicked up to them as she pushed up and came trotting toward them with a thankful smile. Will didn't even try to contain his. With wide smiles Will and Shansa closed the distance between them and threw their arms around one another in a loving embrace. Shansa held onto him for only a brief moment before pushing back and looking up to Will. It had been a few months since they had last seen each other, but the past few days alone made it feel like an eternity.

"As if we wouldn't?" Will teased in response.

Shansa turned her eyes from Will to look over his shoulder.

"Eleena!"

She tore herself away from Will's arms to allow the asari to meet her in a hug as tight as the one before it.

"You got my message!" Shansa laughed happily as she stood back and turned to face Will again.

"I told you they would," came a low, gravelly voice.

A few thumps preluded the sight of a grinning krogan that came strolling out from behind cover a few meters down the path.

Will spun to face him with a smile somehow larger than before. "Kallux, you sneaky lizard."

The krogan chuckled and approached the trio with an outstretched hand. Will extended his own hand to meet it and shook firmly before the krogan and asari did the same.

"I mean really," Kallux continued. "You think these two wouldn't be here at your beck and call?"

"W-well if they had something more important to deal with, yes," Shansa quickly retorted.

"You really think you two aren't at the top of our list of priorities?" Eleena asked with a cocked brow.

Will laughed and put his arm around Shansa's shoulder to pull her into yet another hug. She looked up and beamed happily. Her hair was in a tight bun and the lack of any makeup made it fairly obvious that they had been away from the _Aberrant_'s amenities for at least a day. He stepped back and looked to both her and Kallux with a fading smile as reality began to settle over them.

"Have you heard from anyone else?" Shansa asked quietly. "Kay, Fayneer, Fynnis? Anyone?"

"We sent out a bunch of messages," Will answered. "We just got something from Kay and T'Lees, but we haven't read it yet. Thought it was best to focus on dealing with the situation at hand."

Shansa nodded nervously. "I guess so."

Will smirked. "Speaking of which: why are we here, Shansa?"

She took a deep breath as her own smile fell. "We're in trouble."

"I could have guess that much," Eleena remarked.

"What happened?" Will asked.

Shansa shook her head. "We've… kind of lost the _Aberrant _to the Blue Suns."

Will blinked in disbelief. "What?"

"It's my fault," Kallux grumbled.

"Don't listen to him," Shansa interjected. "It was both of us." She sighed and shook her head. "We'd just finished some work here on Korlus when the news hit about Earth. We didn't know what was going on, but we knew things could turn bad in a second if we didn't have a way to defend ourselves."

Eleena crossed her arms. "The _Aberrant _has more guns than any ship of its class I've ever seen! Private or military."

"I know, but…" Shansa averted her eyes. "I saw those clips of the battle. The fleets fighting those things. I was _terrified._"

"We all were," Kallux continued. "Which is why I got in touch with someone on Korlus that I've known for a while. An old friend of Taxalur's that has been working on reverse engineering some new navy firepower. I thought we might be able to get our hands on one of the prototypes."

"We actually did," Shansa said with a chuckle. "They had even gotten it into the cargo bay when the Blue Suns hit us."

"Did they know it was you?" Will asked. "Ever since Janson and the Blue Suns business I've been looking over my shoulder every time I see one of those bastards."

She shook her head. "No. I don't think so. There are three hangars in the repair station we were at and the other occupied landing zone was hit as well."

"So the ship's gone?" Eleena asked. "You guys are stranded here?"

"Not gone, no," Kallux corrected. "They haven't been able to crack the ship's security. Thank Narenthus Antarian for being paranoid and going overboard for that one. But we've been pretty much stranded for the past two days."

Will raised a brow. "Out here in the Wastes?"

"The ship's only a few miles away," Shansa explained. "We've been out here trying to sneak past the Blue Suns patrols while staying close enough to monitor the ship's security broadcasts."

"Damn," Eleena muttered. "I'm guessing there were too many of them to mount a counterattack?"

Kallux nodded. "Exactly. If we had been on the ship during that initial ambush we could have punched out and gotten away… but we weren't." He looked to the ground. "We had to get out as fast as we could. Even so… we lost people."

Shansa frowned. "Two of our crew died in the escape. Other than the two of us, only Bojin made it out."

Will knew all three of the people who made up Shansa and Kallux's crew. A human woman by the name of Linda, a salarian tech specialist named Matlin and another human, Bojin. His stomach twisted in grief.

"Shansa, Kallux. I'm so sorry," he muttered.

Eleena reached forward and placed a comforting hand on Shansa's shoulder.

"You guys okay?" The asari asked.

Shansa swallowed hard and closed her eyes. Will could see the rising pain that she had been working to suppress.

"It's been a rough few days," she answered shakily.

Will looked to Kallux. "Where's Bo?"

The krogan motioned over his shoulder. "Keeping watch a little ways up."

Eleena looked around the circle. "So what's the plan? We getting you guys out of here or what?"

Shansa drew in a calming breath and shook her head. "Not without our ship."

"Shansa, we can't ask this of them," Kallux said. "There's a reason they've been out of our 'line of work' for years."

"What, you don't think we can still fight?" Eleena asked with a sly grin.

Kallux grunted. "Of course not. I'm trying to be conscious of the fact you and Will got out of this kinda stuff for a reason."

"We got out because we wanted to," Will reminded him. "But this isn't some RMC nonsense. This is important. Especially with two of your people, two of your _friends_, dead by the hands of the fucking Blue Suns."

"Damn straight," Eleena said flatly and firmly.

Kallux slowly nodded. "Okay. But you have to know this might not be easy."

"Once again, you don't think we can still fight?" Will echoed with a smirk. "We've had to deal with our fair share of pirates and thugs the past few years, Kallux."

Eleena nodded in agreement. "So what are we dealing with here? Just a standard Blue Suns detachment?"

Shansa cleared her throat. "Seems like it. But it's been two days since the initial attack so we're fairly certain the majority of their combat team has moved on."

"Which is their typical method when attacking civilian installations," Kallux chimed in. "At least ones that don't have soldiers ready to rally behind them."

"By this point I'm sure they're getting pissed off that they haven't gotten into the _Aberrant_ yet," Shansa grinned. "I think if we hit them when they're not expecting it we can get on board and get out of there before any backup arrives."

"You got any evidence to support all these theories?" Will asked.

Shansa narrowed her eyes challengingly. "As a matter of fact, we do. Bo had his sniper rifle on him when we escaped, so he and I have scouted the station and its surroundings the past two nights. The Blue Suns had four troop transports drive them in on the initial attack, and only one is still there. We've also seen virtually zero radio traffic since late afternoon yesterday."

Will scratched his chin in consideration. "So nothing concrete."

"Will, we cannot just leave _Aberrant_ for the Blue Suns to pick apart," Shansa urged.

"She right," Eleena said. "If the news reports keep coming in bad then we're going to need as much insurance as we can get."

He nodded reluctantly. "I know, I know." He sighed and looked to Shansa. "But you really think five people can do this?"

"Five?" Kallux interjected. "What about your crew? Corintha and the batarian?"

"Mag," Will reminded him. "They're both gone. Mag's headed to find his family and Corintha got recalled to active duty. It's just us and Bojin. So, as I asked, do you think we can do this?"

Shansa bit her lip. "Depends on how many people they actually have sitting around the repair station, but if we're talking a worst-case scenario we can at least get to the ship and blast out of there without a serious engagement."

Will reached to his back to retrieve his rifle. "Then let's get to it. From the news reports coming in I don't think we have much time to waste."

* * *

><p>"Captain Hume."<p>

Will lowered his rifle to the side in his left hand and extended his right toward the man in front of him. Bojin planted the stock of his sniper rifle on the ground and shook Will's hand firmly.

"Good to see you, Bo," Will said with a small smile.

Will could only see the man's eyes through his visor, but he could tell his face was completely straight. He had always thought that, as an ex-officer in the Alliance Navy, Bo had forgotten that he was allowed to show emotion after being discharged. Or perhaps he had always been that way. Sadly, Will didn't know him well enough to ask.

"Same to you, captain," Bojin replied. "I'm glad Shansa's message made it through. Happy to see you as well, Eleena."

The asari came to a stop at Will's side and nodded in a simple greeting. "Snipe any of those Blue Suns fuckers while you were up here?"

Bo chuckled. "No, ma'am. I was under strict orders to observe and report."

Shansa stood a few feet away with her leg lifted and foot planted on a piece of debris. She gazed out over the expanse of wreckage for a short moment before glancing back toward them.

"You did excellent work, Bo."

He nodded once. "I'd be lying if I said it wasn't tempting to pull the trigger once or twice."

"Glad you didn't," Kallux chimed in. "Now we can take them by surprise."

Bo looked around the group curiously. "Take them by surprise?" He repeated.

Will lifted his rifle back up to sling it across his chest. "That's right. Eleena and I figured we might as well help you get your ship back. You know, while we're in the neighborhood."

"Pardon the assertion, but it's about damn time," Bojin said eagerly. "I've been telling them for hours that the Blue Suns have already moved on. Most of them, at least."

"'Most' being the operative word," Shansa reminded him. "With Will and Eleena with us I'm much more confident we can bring things back under control."

"I've spent the past sixteen hours scouting the place out," Bo continued. "There are three entrances for personnel and three larger ones for cargo, all on the ground level. The tops of each landing zone have been open since we arrived, so I'm inclined to believe that they no longer retract. Or that the Blue Suns don't know how to do it."

"So how do you suggest we get in there?" Eleena inquired.

Bojin lifted his rifle and activated the scope. He peered down the sights toward the location of the landing station a few miles away.

"It's a long drop into the landing bays themselves, so I'd say that's out. I think we should head through either a personnel or freight entrance."

Will crossed his arms. "You think we can hack through those doors?"

"I don't think we need to," Bojin replied. "I looked around the place for a few hours before the attack came in. The tech they're running on is centuries old. Forcing one of those locks open should be elementary for someone with even the most basic security knowledge."

"Which he has," Shansa informed them.

"I'll never be as good as Matlin was, but I'll make due," Bo replied respectfully.

Will turned to the others and nodded in consideration. "So we're just going to storm the gates? If you're absolutely sure about their numbers…"

"I'm not, but I'm as close as one can be without being absolutely certain," Bo said as he lowered his rifle.

"At least you're honest," Will mused. "Okay, so we'll have Kallux lead the charge with-"

He stopped mid-sentence and blinked. For the first time since they had arrived he noticed that Kallux's cannon was nowhere to be seen.

"Wait a second. Kallux, where's your rig?"

The krogan grumbled and crossed his arms. "There's a reason we couldn't make our way to the ship and escape during the _initial_ attack."

"I told him to bring it along just in case," Shansa teased. "But nope, he just had to leave in the armory."

"That thing weighs almost as much as you do," Kallux argued in return. "Excuse me for wanting to go a few hours without lugging it around."

Eleena sighed. "Well, shit. You got a gun at all?"

The krogan chuckled. "Of course. My shotgun."

"Don't you _my_ shotgun?" Will interjected.

"Relax, I'm keeping it in better shape than you would," Kallux said with a grin. "And getting more mileage out of it."

Bojin cleared his throat. "So are we going to sit up here and joke around all evening or are we going to take our ship back?"

Shansa grabbed her rifle from her back and primed it for engagement. "You're no fun, Bo. But you are right. Let's get going while we still have light."

With two days to scout their surroundings Bo and Shansa had put together a makeshift map of the area that allowed them to traverse through the winding, entwined paths and navigate toward the target with relative ease. At one point they were forced to hide in the fuselage of an old tanker to avoid a passing pair of Blue Suns; if all went well they would be able to get inside the repair station without the Blue Suns even knowing they were there. As the group approached the repair station each one of them prepared themselves in their own way. Will and Shansa's methods were the closest, both double and triple checking their rifles and armor. Eleena began to concentrate on reigning in the biotic power that she was undoubtedly going to unleash if and when things went sour. Bojin adjusted the zeroing on his scope by optimizing it for nearly point-blank engagement. Kallux merely tapped his fingers on the side of his shotgun in a rhythmic pattern, expecting but not hoping for confrontation.

Shansa, who had eagerly taken point, held up her hand to bring them to a halt. The squad stopped and crouched at her hand signal and watched as she peered around a large piece of debris that lay at the inner corner of a turn in the path.

"I see it," she said over the comm. "Freight entrance."

Will hurried to her side. "See anyone?"

"Unfortunately, yes," Shansa sighed. "One sentry. But he doesn't look like he's paying very close attention." She paused for a moment and snorted. "Actually he might be asleep."

"Asleep?" Kallux chuckled. "You'd think they just let _anyone_ join the Blue Suns," chimed sarcastically.

"He's sitting and leaning against the wall," Shansa clarified. "And he sure isn't moving. So he's either sleeping or really enjoys playing statue."

"But you do see the door?" Bo inquired.

Will looked over Shansa's shoulder. "Oh yeah, it's there. Only a few dozen meters away."

Just around the corner that the group had stopped short of was a clearing. The debris had clearly been moved and pushed out en masse in order to accommodate the large structure that lay ahead. It was around three stories tall and stretched out in either direction far beyond Will's sight, though it most likely circled around before too long considering the fact that it only had three landing ports.

"I'd offer to stay back and provide sniper support, but that might make it difficult to get the door open," Bo lamented.

"Then we charge," Kallux decided. "Get through the door and into the ship as fast as possible."

"Fine by me," Eleena said excitedly. "And if we run into opposition?"

"Deal with them, but don't let them bog us down," Shansa said. "Is everyone ready?"

Will clicked off his safety. "When you are."

The others gave their affirmations and got into position to move.

"On me," Shansa said. "Now."

She lifted her rifle to firing position and darted around the corner on a swift course toward the door. Her helmet turned slightly toward the lone sentry, who continued to sit against the wall with his chin in his chest. However, about halfway into their run, a light and soft chime rang out from the sentry's omnitool. A proximity alarm. The Blue Suns soldier jumped in surprise and looked down to his wrist before turning his eyes up to see five people bearing down on him. He scrambled to his feet and ran for cover with his rifle hanging haphazardly toward his foes and firing in every direction but straight.

"Contacts!" He shouted, presumably over his comm as well.

Will fired a short burst toward the Blue Suns soldier as a motivation for him to find cover. "Shit, let's make this fast!"

They ground to a halt in front of the door while Bo slid up and began working on the control panel. As he had assured them, it looked positively ancient compared to modern standards. A low rumble grew to their right that was soon accompanied by an unsettling vibration in the ground. Will looked back over his shoulder just in time to see what looked like a modified Tomkah emblazoned with the Blue Suns colors come shambling over piles of debris and wreckage with its turret pointed toward them.

Eleena summarized his thoughts nicely.

"Oh, _shit!_"

The cannon on the top of the vehicle fired and sent a shell whizzing toward them. The shot went wide and impacted the ground some fifteen meters behind them quite close to where the sentry had taken cover. As the Tomkah tumbled down from a rather large obstacle it held its cannon straight and fired yet another shot, this one slamming into the wall close by. The explosion nearly knocked them off their feet, but desperate grasps to the their surroundings kept them stable. Just as Will opened his mouth to give the retreat order, the door hissed and slid open with a grinding screech from somewhere deep in the guts of the retraction mechanism.

"It's open!" Bojin shouted.

The group turned and sprinted into an unlit hallway. Will looked ahead to see that the distant end was marked with another door just like the one they had hacked into. Five shadows sprinted down a long pillar of light drawn by the setting sun just outside the door, giving them a path to follow as the sound of the Tomkah rattled on. The vehicle's engine settled as it found its positioning once more and fired off another shot. This one nearly hit. The impact was close enough to send Will tumbling forward and his rifle clattering to the metal floor. His shielding rippled as both the shockwave from the explosion and the shrapnel it produced fought to break through, but ultimately failed. Eleena's hand found his shoulder and helped him to his feet as Shansa scooped up his rifle and waved the group toward the threshold of a smaller hallway off to the side.

"In here!"

Together they scrambled inside and out of the sight and, more importantly, the range of the pursuing Tomkah. Shansa flipped on her flashlight to illuminate the hall that stretched on ahead of them. It curved ever-so-slightly in a way that matched the arc of the building's outside wall. Will let out a weak laugh as he put his hand on the wall to catch his breath.

Shansa looked over her shoulder and raised a brow. "You okay?"

"Yeah… yeah!" He chuckled and shook his head. "It's been a while since… since-"

"Since you were almost blown up?" Kallux asked with a grin.

Will attempted to steady his breath, but the adrenaline pumping through his body seemed to fight for the contrary.

"Something like that," he answered.

"You sure you're alright?" Eleena asked with a small smirk.

Will nodded quickly. "I'm... I'm _great _actually!"

Bo cleared his throat and motioned down the hall. "This tunnel runs all the way around the station," he suggested. "Easy access to all the freight entrances."

Will coughed and reached forward to take his rifle from Shansa's hand. "You think we should head down to the next one?"

Kallux nodded. "It's a good idea. All three landing bays were connected by a central hub."

"Which makes it an easy way to find the ship," Eleena deduced. "Sounds good to me."

Shansa was waiting patiently with her rifle raised and at the ready. "On me."

The group fell into position behind her and flipped on their own flashlights to keep their path luminous. It was a short walk around the curved hall to the next threshold that dead ended at a hallway identical to the one they had entered through. Shansa directed her light to the left, the exterior door, to confirm that they had reached another freight entrance.

"Door looks the same," she noted before turning back to the right. "So one of the docking bays should be right through there."

Bo darted past her and ran to the large interior door with his omnitool active. His hack on the exterior door was apparently applicable to the architecture found in the interior door as well, as it yielded to Bo's attempted entry almost immediately. The door let out an unsettling screech as it slowly slid apart along rusty tracks. The squad quickly lifted their weapons as light flooded into the hallway, but were met by an empty landing bay. The amphitheater-styled architecture of the enclosed bay had only a few doors around the outside edges, including the one they stood in now. It was large enough to hold a ship nearly twice the size of the _Trueshot_.

"Damn," Shansa muttered. "Wrong bay."

"Opposite side," Kallux said with a point of his finger. "The control center with access to each landing bay is in there."

Shansa nodded and took the first steps into the open-air enclosure. "Let's go before they figure out where we are."

The others followed close behind as she led them straight toward the door. Their eyes shifted and darted around in anticipation for an ambush, but no such attack came. As they slowed to a stop at the door Bo once again activated his omnitool to begin hacking through. This door, unlike the freight entrances, looked like it had been modernized at some point.

Will frowned. "Bo, can you get through this one?"

"No need," Bo replied. "It's unlocked."

Shansa lifted her rifle. "Everyone prep to breach."

Kallux and Will joined her in pointing their weapons at the door as Eleena charged a biotic shockwave in her palm. With a nod from Shansa, Bo tapped a button at the center of the door and jumped clear. The door pinged and slid open to a circular room with walls filled with monitors and workbenches scattered around that overflowed with errant hardware and ship components. Absent, however, was the expected resistance. Shansa took a step forward and over the threshold of the doorway to sweep her sights around the room.

"Looks clear," she muttered, unconvinced.

Will followed her in and began a slow search through the desks. As the group fanned out Will spotted something tucked behind a desk that sent him jumping back in surprise.

"Shit!"

The others spun to face him in search of a target only to see Will kneel behind the desk and sigh.

"Got a body back here," he explained.

Eleena sighed heavily. "Goddess, Will! You scared the shit out of me."

He looked down at the young man, a human, and attempted to hold back his disgust. He had been shot through the chest multiple times, and given his lack of armor or armament had clearly been no threat to his killers. Kallux stepped up to his side and shook his head.

"Damn. Kid was just doing his job," the krogan lamented.

Will gritted his teeth and stood up. "As if I needed a reminder as to why I hate the Blue Suns."

"Hey, this is it!" Shansa called. "This is the door to Bay 2. That's where we landed."

Will and Kallux turned to see her beside another door with Eleena already standing at the ready. Bo hurried to join them from his corner of the room and tapped into the door's control panel. The others prepared their weapons and held their sights on the door as Bo stood to the side and looked over his shoulder.

"Ready?"

Shansa nodded. "Do it."

The door pinged and slid open. There, at the center of the docking bay, sat the ship that Narenthus Antarian had once called his own. The _Aberrant _was a truly unique style of architecture, though it most closely resembled that of a turian corvette. Will could not admire it for long, however, as a much more pressing matter stood between him and their getaway: six Blue Suns scattered around the hull at various locations. Two engineers stood by one of the side airlocks with a Blue Suns captain behind them, watching and presumably judging their progress. Three more combatants stood guard, one at the bow and two at the stern. Shansa charged through and aimed her rifle square at the captain as Kallux, Will and Eleena followed and took up positions beside her. Bo remained just inside the doorway with his sniper rifle sighted and ready.

"Drop your weapons now!" Shansa ordered.

Will smiled softly to himself.

The Blue Suns captain spun on his heel and grabbed his gun from his back. "Hostiles!"

Gunfire exploded between the two groups. Luckily, the Blue Suns had had no time to prepare.

"They never listen!" Shansa complained.

"I could have told you that," Will laughed as his shots ripped into the Blue Suns soldier near the bow.

Kallux roared and charged toward the three Blue Suns targets near midship. Shansa sighed as the krogan moved into her line of fire and refocused her aim on the same guard that Will was engaged with. Bo's sniper ripped through one of the engineers just as Eleena unleashed a biotic stasis on the other. The Blue Suns captain unloaded his rifle into Kallux, only to have the krogan ram his shoulder straight into his chest and send him flying back into the hull of the ship. Kallux spun to the engineer that had been hit by Bojin's shot and targeted him with a shotgun blast that tore through his armor. Will and Shansa's target at the bow fell to their combined fire, leaving them two open targets near the stern to choose from. As they decided on a new target, one of the two Blue Suns pulled a rocket launcher from his back and took aim.

"Heavy weapons!" Shansa yelled at the top of her lungs.

The group broke away from the door to put distance between one another as a rocket came roaring forth from the Blue Suns heavy weapons operator. It impacted somewhere behind Will, and brought both his and Shansa's shields down to nearly a quarter capacity. He rolled to the ground and righted himself on one knee before spinning to take aim on the pair of targets near the rear of the ship. Before he could take a shot a streak of blue and purple ripped through the air and impacted at the center of the two Blue Suns, tossing them to the side like rag dolls. Eleena recovered from the biotic charge gracefully and spun to riddle one of her two victims with shots from her SMG as Bo picked off the other with his sniper. By now Eleena's stasis had rippled and faded, allowing the Blue Suns engineer to turn and sprint toward one of the doors on the outside wall of the docking bay. Will ignored him and took aim on the captain, who had righted himself and was unloading shots at Kallux point-blank. The krogan's shielding sputtered and failed, allowing a few bullets to rip into his arm just before a shot from Shansa's rifle split the captain's helmet and brought him to the ground.

"Got a runner!" Eleena pointed out.

"Let him go," Shansa quickly ordered.

Will watched as the engineer dashed through a door and out of sight. Shansa ran toward Kallux and placed a concerned hand on his shoulder.

"You okay, big guy?"

The krogan snorted. "Fine, but I appreciate it."

Shansa smirked and gave him a pat before stepping up to the airlock with her omnitool activated. "Two days trying to break through and they couldn't get it," she mused.

She forwarded the access codes to the ship's security system, which in turn promptly opened the outer airlock door. Bo, Eleena and Will joined them by the side of the ship as Shansa began starting up some of the _Aberrant_'sdrive systems remotely from her omnitool.

"We need to get outta here fast," she noted. "Kallux, why don't you grab the Kodiak and fly Will and Eleena to the _Trueshot_ while I get us into orbit?"

The krogan nodded in agreement. "Sounds good. Get the cargo bay door open for me, would ya?"

"Done. Bo, you're with me," Shansa said as she climbed into the airlock and held out a hand.

He accepted the help up and joined her inside the airlock as Kallux waved Shansa and Eleena toward the bow of the ship where a large loading ramp was descending from the cargo airlock.

Shansa leaned out of the door and pointed to Will. "I'll send you rendezvous coordinates!"

Will glanced back and gave her a nod of acknowledgment before hurrying to catch up with Kallux, Eleena and his ride.

* * *

><p>"Nice landing," Kallux complimented.<p>

Will hurried through the pre-flight checklist and chuckled as he processed the krogan's words after a short delay.

"Thanks, it was a tight squeeze."

Eleena sat in the copilot's seat, quickly working through her own work, while Kallux stood between them on the bridge of the _Trueshot._ Will had left many of the subsystems in standby when they disembarked, which made the process of preparing for flight much faster. After only a minute or so Will completed his portion of the procedure and looked over to Eleena with a raised brow.

"Ready?"

She made one last adjustment and nodded. "Hit it."

The ship shook as the thrusters on the belly roared the life and began to push the nose toward the sky. Once he had an angle to clear the debris around the landing zone, Will punched the main drive thrusters into gear and sent them soaring upward. The three of them waited a few tense minutes until they had cleared the anti-ship batteries before letting out a collective sigh of relief. Will adjusted their heading to the point that Shansa had set before glancing over to Eleena and Kallux.

"I think we're in the clear."

"We're fine," Eleena assured him. "And before you forget…"

She swiped her hand across a panel in front of her to refresh Will's communications screen. He turned his eyes to it to see a pending message from Kay.

"Oh, right."

He took a deep breath and reached forward to open the message. Eleena and Kallux looked over his shoulder to read along with him.

_You beat me to the punch, Willie! Fayneer, Rosie and I are okay, but the shit has hit the proverbial fan here on Invictus. Those things, Reapers or whatever they're calling them, they showed up about twenty hours ago, but we weren't hit that hard. Least not as hard as some of the other places we've read about. Our ship was in orbit at the time… and we haven't heard from the flight crew since the attack began. Dead or AWOL, couldn't tell you. The fighting is pretty bad here, but it's manageable. We need an extraction. Comm networks haven't been compromised yet, so we can stay in active communication. Send back when you get this._

_-Kay_

"Looks like we've got a few more people to save," Eleena mused.

Will nodded and forwarded the message to Shansa. "Sounds like it. Kallux, did you or Shansa have anything urgent to take care of?"

The krogan shook his head. "No, we were planning on looking for everyone after that hardware was installed on the _Aberrant_."

"Then I'm hereby recruiting you to the cause. Welcome to the team, buddy."

Kallux gave him a pat on the shoulder. "Glad to be here, captain."


	5. Chapter 5

****The Red Moon Collection - 5 - The Empty Night****

**Chapter 5**

_**ISV Aberrant, Imir System**_

"Invictus, huh?" Shansa asked as she sipped on a freshly brewed cup of coffee.

Will nodded and leaned back against the wall. "Their old stomping ground."

He looked to his right where Shansa sat in the chair behind her desk. It spoke volumes about Narenthus Antarian's inflated ego that on his custom-built starship he had not only a private quarters on the lower deck, but also a private office just behind the bridge and command center. Shansa and Kallux had apparently utilized the room with its intended purpose in mind by splitting the office as a space they could work uninterrupted. The executive desk and chair had a number of holopanels hovering around them as well as one master display that was situated on the wall directly behind the chair. The room was relatively small however, and the other walls housed only a storage locker, a small kitchenette, and the door that opened up onto the command deck.

"I'm a little reluctant to just charge in there," Shansa admitted as she read over a set of reports regarding hostile actions against the planet.

"You and me both," Will assured her. "But I was also a little worried about coming down to Korlus."

Her eyes flicked up to him. "But you did anyway."

"Of course I did," he answered. "And we'll do the same to find T'Lees, Kay and Rosie."

"Mmm." Shansa leaned back in her chair. "That's the good old fashioned 'Will confidence' that's been missing in my life." She gave him a playful wink and took another sip.

He chuckled and shrugged. "Something about saving your ass down there gave me a kick… it kinda reminded me of why I used to love doing this kind of thing."

"'This kind of thing?'" She asked. "You mean fighting for your very survival?"

"If you want to be dramatic about it," Will replied with a smirk.

Shansa shut down the displays around her and stood from the desk. "Come on, I'm sure Kallux and Bo are done getting their gear stored. We should have a little talk about our next move."

She walked past him and opened the door to the command center as Will turned to follow after her. It was staggering to think back to the early days of their escapades on the _Hyperion_ and compare Shansa then and now. Will had always known she was a timebomb of potential waiting for her fuse to be lit, and since she, Kallux and Fynnis had set off a few years ago to continue on the bounty hunting business that wick had clearly burned its course and ignited its payload. She commanded a certain presence about her that Eleena had always told Will that he carried, the one that inspired so many people to fight alongside him and trust him as a leader. She was confident in herself. Whether that be her choices, her trust, or her actions. But the changes hadn't happened overnight. Over the past six years Will and Eleena met up to visit as often as they could, which usually wound up being once every few months. They had both watched the changes in her as they developed, slowly at first, but eventually into the potential that Will had always hoped would sprout from her.

She set down her coffee on one of the workstation consoles and reached forward to activate the comm system. "You all done down there?"

Her voice echoed over the ship's comm speakers. A few seconds later Eleena responded and her voice crackled through the speakers at the workstation Shansa had chosen.

"_We were looking at these two weapons that you picked up… they're fucking insane!"_

"How so?" Shansa asked.

"_I've never seen anything like them," _Eleena said, almost out of breath of speaking so quickly._ "I mean, I've read about them, but I didn't know the Thanix tech had been released to the public sector."_

"As far as I know, it hasn't yet," Shansa mused. "That's why we were in that blackmarket station in the middle of nowhere picking it up."

"You think that's why the Blue Suns attacked you?" Will theorized. "If this is some valuable tech, they could have been after it."

Shansa shrugged in consideration as Eleena responded. "_I don't care how you got it, all I know is I want one. I mean, yeah, these two in particular definitely weren't built by a military-grade contractor, but the technology itself, the core of this fucker, it's all here!"_

Shansa laughed. "How about you three come on up so we can talk about what our next move is?"

"_Ugh, fine," _Eleena whined. "_But tell Will I'm going to sleep on the floor of your cargo bay for the next few nights while I tear into this thing."_

"As long as you can put them back together," Shansa warned.

"_Fine, fine! __You're gonna need to me to install them anyway," _Eleena argued.

Shansa sighed and grabbed her coffee. "Will and I are waiting."

She closed the comm channel and turned to approach the table at the center of the room. Having been influenced heavily by turian design, the command center of the _Aberrant _bore a close resemblance to that of the _Trueshot_. An oblong table covered with displays and holoprojectors was situated at the center to provide officers easy access to combat information. However, since it was built in the private sector, the _Aberrant _featured far more aesthetically pleasing interior design, at the cost of pure utilitarianism. Unlike the _Trueshot,_ which had the command center and bridge located on the top level at about midship, the _Aberrant _had a much longer main deck with the command center located at the bow. The remainder of the main deck housed the crew's quarters, bunkrooms, and engineering compartment at the far aft. Below them, on the lower deck, was a large cargo bay, the armory, and the various points of access for the considerable arsenal that the ship boasted. There was no denying that much of the success that Shansa, Kallux, and for a time Fynnis, had found in their bounty hunting business was due to the ship to ship combat capabilities that the _Aberrant _allowed them. All of this, of course, meant nothing if the vessel did not have a superb helmsman. Luckily, Shansa had not traded any of her piloting skills for those she had gained in foot combat.

"You must be exhausted after all that time down there on Korlus," Will said. "Why the hell are you drinking coffee?"

Shansa smiled. "As much as I'd like to sleep we've got some business to attend to before that can happen." She lifted her thermos. "And this is the only way I'm staying awake for it."

Will nodded. "Fair enough."

Shansa took another ship. "So you haven't heard from anyone else yet."

He shook his head. "Not yet. But I've read reports that the extranet is being slammed hard or that the powers that be are actually throttling civilian usage to ensure military traffic is uninhibited."

"Damn," Shansa muttered. "Then I guess we just wait."

"Sounds like it." Will shifted uneasily. "Have we gotten anything back from Kay since we sent her that follow-up message?"

"Only that encrypted data package with a set of coordinates," she answered. "And it's been nearly an hour since we got that."

"You think they're just laying low now?" He asked.

Shansa shrugged. "Or communications are clogged like you said earlier."

The sound of boots on the metal deck crept down the hall toward them until Kallux, Eleena and Bojin stepped into the command center where Will and Shansa stood waiting. Kallux had removed some of the heavier components from his armor and stowed his weapons while Bo had exchanged his hardsuit entirely for a set of casual fatigues. Eleena still wore her armor, as Will did, having not had time to remove it while they were back on the _Trueshot._

"About time you showed up," Shansa teased.

Eleena bit her lip. "You can't just show me something like that and then take it away!"

"It's not going anywhere," Kallux assured her with a pat on the shoulder.

"And I'm sure you'll get plenty of time to tear into it," Shansa said. "In fact I'm kinda counting on it now. But you all know that time is critical right now and we need to make some decisions."

Will nodded. "Absolutely. According to Kay's message Invictus is being hit by the invaders and, by the sound of it, that includes ground forces."

Bo stepped forward. "I scraped for some intel on that when we got back to the ship, actually."

Kallux nodded. "I've been reading through what we pulled in. Some of it is pretty useful, some of it not so much."

"What kind of intel?" Will inquired.

"Most major military organizations have put out a public service advisement," Kallux explained. "The idea is to make sure the civilian population is aware of what is happening and what their best chance of survival would be."

"And it's actually useful?" Will mused.

The krogan laughed. "I like said, some of it is. The package the Citadel authorities sent out is worthless. Just says to avoid the 'hostile forces' at all costs. But the Systems Alliance and Turian Hierarchy's packets were actually been very informative."

Kallux opened up one of the documents and put it on the display at the center of the table. "From the Alliance," he began. "'Advisement on Engagement with Reaper Forces.'"

"'Reapers,'" Eleena repeated.

Shansa nodded. "I've been hearing that more and more. Isn't that what that one Spectre was making a fuss about a few years ago?"

"Yep," Eleena affirmed. "We were just talking about him a few days ago. Sounds like he was right."

"Unfortunately," Kallux commented. "The document has a pretty high-level overview of what kind of rules of engagement to follow. Fighting their starships seems to be right out. As for the ground troops it says that, 'Any and all Reaper forces are regarded as an extremely dangerous threat. Do not attempt to engage with these forces unless you are trained and heavily armed. Regardless, all civilians are highly encouraged to avoid conflict if at all possible. Upon contact, if you are certain that transport can be reached relatively easily, attempt immediate evacuation. In all other situations, hide.'"

"Yikes," Shansa muttered.

"There's a bit more on the known combatants," Kallux continued. "It appears these 'Reapers' form their armies by capturing and mutating their foes. The Alliance even provided 'reporting names' on them."

He tapped a few commands to bring up three pictures beside the current document. All three were clearly mutated humanoids of some sort.

"Looks like they turn human victims into these 'Husks,'" Kallux read.

"Looks like those things that came out of the human colony attacks in '83," Shansa noted. "The geth attacks?"

"I'm starting to doubt those attacks were actually geth aggression," Eleena remarked sarcastically.

"Then there are the 'Cannibals,'" Kallux continued, disregarding the quips. "They're a combination of humans and batarians. And last we have the 'Marauders.' Turian mutations."

Will smirked ruefully. "At least they're being creative with their naming convention."

Eleena nodded. "Does help the apocalypse go down just a little smoother, doesn't it?"

Shansa eyed the screens intently. "But it sounds like Invictus is holding out."

"By all accounts the force that is besieging Invictus is marginal compared to most other targeted planets," Bo pointed out.

"Then you think we can pull off this rescue operation?" Shansa asked to the others.

Will crossed his arms. "Doesn't matter what I think. I'm not going to leave them to fend for themselves."

"Agreed," Eleena said firmly.

Shansa looked to Kallux who nodded once in confirmation before turning to Bojin. "Bo… this is going to be dangerous. And I know you don't have a… _personal _reason to help us, but-"

He held up his hand firmly. "Say no more, Captain Fischer. The few people I care about have contacted me to tell me they are safe for now."

"What about the Alliance?" Will asked.

Bo looked down. "I had considered returning to duty, but at this point we're just too early in this fight to know where our resources should be funneled. I'd prefer to stay aboard the _Aberrant_. For the time being, at least."

Shansa nodded. "Alright. Since we don't know exactly what we're going to face on Invictus, I think we should plan on this: we make our way to the Caestus System and drop out near Invictus to get scans of the orbital situation. From there we put the ships down on or in orbit around one of the uninhabited planets or moons. Then we take the shuttle the few remaining hours back to Invictus and head down to the surface, if we've deemed it safe enough."

Will gave her a small smile. "Sounds like a plan to me."

With the agreement of the others they determined their meeting point and distributed the information on their destination before Kallux ferried Will and Eleena back to the _Trueshot_. After a brief goodbye they made their way up to the cockpit and set their route as they watched the _Aberrant _a few kilometers away spin up its main thrusters and take its leave.

"Are you scared?" Eleena asked, quite bluntly.

Will looked over from his control panel and attempted to hide the obvious answer from his expression. "A little."

"Same," she admitted. "But I guess we won't know how bad it is until we get on the ground and actually get into a scrap with these things, right?"

"Yeah. The perspective and experience will be valuable at least," Will reasoned. "Assuming we don't get killed outright."

Eleena shook her head. "The reports I've read say these things are tough, but not invincible. If we fight smart… I think we'll be okay."

Will tapped a button at the center of his console to prep the FTL drive for ignition. "Somehow that's all I needed to hear from you," he said with a small smile.

With another tap of the control console they were off.

* * *

><p>As fast as a snap of one's fingers, the <em>Trueshot<em> dropped from FTL and oriented itself with the bow pointed directly toward the planet of Invictus. The arid planet loomed before them and took up nearly half of the cockpit's forward viewport. Will wasted no time in sending out his comm request. It was answered a mere two seconds later.

"_We're here, Will!" _Shansa responded. "_Dropped out about ten seconds before you. We're about a hundred kilos ahead. Perfect position for scanners."_

"Activating ours as well," Will replied.

Eleena stood back by the meeting table and watched the holographic display of the planet in front of her as specks began appearing in its orbit, each with an expandable tag full of the data their scanners collected as they probed away.

"I see a few things already," she informed him. "Big things."

"Reaper ships?" Will asked.

"I don't know. But they sure don't look familiar," Eleena answered.

Will looked to his side to the two-dimensional version of the planet's scan and made a quick motion to zoom in on one of the objects in orbit around the planet.

"That thing is huge," he muttered.

"Nearly as big as whatever attacked the Citadel a few years ago," Eleena agreed. "And there are three or four smaller ones as well."

"Shansa, you seeing all this?" Will asked after remembering the comm link was still open.

"_Yeah,"_ she replied softly. "_I think we've got everything. You ready to jump?"_

He looked back to Eleena who gave him a single nod. "Yep, we're good. Meet you at the rendezvous point."

He cut the comm signal and threw the ship into a tight turn to set its new course. He took one last concerned look toward Invictus as it slid from his viewport before punching the thrust controls and prepping their jump to FTL.

* * *

><p>It was just under three hours of flight from Invictus to the uninhabited fourth moon of Temerarus. With light enough gravity to land and secure their ships and a landscape covered with jagged hills and mountains to hide them the moon offered an ideal sanctuary. The <em>Aberrant <em>and _Trueshot _landed a few dozen miles apart and within a few minutes the shuttle from the former had arrived at the latter to complete the team and prepare for their journey back to their final destination. Will felt a sense of nostalgic comfort having Shansa at the controls of the Kodiak during their flight, allowing Kallux, Bojin, Eleena and himself to focus on preparing for the worst. They reviewed Kallux's intel packets thoroughly to familiarize themselves with their potential enemies and checking over their gear before syncing their battle networks together and calling themselves 'ready.' After that, they simply waited.

"So you were in the Alliance?" Eleena asked.

Bo sat back on the troop bench and smiled. "That's right. Staff Sergeant before I was discharged.

"Honorably?" She asked with a perked brow.

He smirked. "Of course."

She nodded. "Weird move to come out here."

"Do you think so?"

"Well, sure. Going from the military to a band of mercenaries is kind of a strange jump," Eleena reasoned.

"I've always felt that I've done more good with Fischer Operations than I ever did with running drills and keeping the grounds well groomed as I did in the Alliance," Bo replied.

"Ah, so you're what they call a 'doer,'" the asari teased.

Bojin grinned. "You could say that. And there's a reason Kallux says I'm one of the best shots he's ever seen. Out here I actually get to use my damned rifle."

"I bet you'd be using now if you were back on Earth."

"Most likely," Bo replied.

Will sat on the other side of the compartment and listened. He smirked at the comment and looked to his side where Kallux sat with his head back and eyes closed.

"Bo's only 'one of the best?'" He asked.

The krogan, who had clearly been listening through his feigned sleep, chuckled. "I've been alive a long time, Hume. Seen a lot of people shoot a lot of guns."

Will accepted the honest answer to what had admittedly been only a teasing question. They waited in silence for a few seconds before Eleena changed the subject.

She looked over to Kallux. "So have you still not heard anything back from your other ships?"

Kallux opened his eyes and shook his head. "Nothing. And I'm starting to get a little worried. Fynnis never ignores a call." He shrugged. "Same goes for Nellie. Here's hoping they've just been out of comm range the past few days."

It was unmistakable how worried Kallux was just by his tone. Despite often trying to emulate a 'good' krogan and suppress his feelings, it was usually obvious when he was worried about his friends. He truly cared, and it showed in his leadership; something that Will had assumed he would shy away from after the fall of the militarized RMC. After all, Kallux himself had admitted many times since then that he had made mistakes and steered the Collective away from what it always should have been. When Shansa and Kallux had told Will about their plans to expand their bounty hunting business he was initially surprised that they had decided on making Kallux the head Fischer Operations, the company they had founded. But after seeing the intentionally limited scope of their business and the close relationships between the crews and teams of all three ships therein, Will saw what a perfect opportunity it provided Kallux: an organization that could accomplish the good things that he had hoped for with the RMC while still staying small enough to avoid attention from those who would be antagonized by such.

"It's almost time," Shansa called from the cockpit.

Will stood and walked to peer through the cockpit doorway. "You sure this is going to work?"

Shansa's hands fluttered fluidly across controls so familiar she could fly blindfolded. "There were only a few of those Reaper ships in orbit. We're dropping out of FTL so close to the atmosphere we'll be on the surface long before they could detect us and move to intercept. Assuming they even care about a tiny shuttle heading down to the surface, of course."

"I'd rather be safe than sorry," Will said cautiously.

"If there's any danger we can do an emergency punch to get us away from the planet," Shansa assured him. "Trust me, Will. We'll be okay."

He nodded in acceptance. There was really nothing else he or she needed to say. He _did _trust her.

"How close are we?" He asked.

"I'm bringing us out of FTL in about thirty seconds," she replied before looking over her shoulder. "Everyone sit down and strap in. That includes you, Will!"

He obediently stepped back to the troop bench he had been occupying earlier and sat down to secure himself in place. The group strapped into their seats and waited patiently as Shansa continued her work at the helm.

"Five seconds, switching to comms," she announced. "_Three. Two. One."_

Although they could not feel it, everyone in the crew compartment of the Kodiak knew what was happening by the various alerting chimes and pings of acknowledgment that sounded from the cockpit.

"_One target on scope, approximately fifteen thousand kilometers out," _she informed them. "_No deviation from its current flight path. Putting us in a full burn entry vector."_

Even with the inertial dampeners active the Kodiak rattled against the thickening atmosphere as Shansa dove toward the surface of Invictus. That coupled with the roar of the thrusters audible from inside the cabin itself let them know just how fast they were flying toward the ground. Still, no one appeared nervous. If there was anyone that would get them to the ground safely it was Shansa.

"Scanners picking anything up on the surface?" Kallux inquired from his seat.

Will had almost asked the same thing. Having seen the news footage from Earth he knew damn well that the Reapers did not seem to shy away from heading to the ground to deal with enemies up close and personal.

"_Two in Shastinasio," _Shansa replied. "_But they're pretty far away from our target landing zone."_

The coordinates that Kay had forwarded them placed their location in Aldera, one of the many boroughs of Shastinasio, the colony's capital.

"We don't exactly know the effective range of their weapons," Will reminded them.

"_I'll keep us low and fast," _Shansa said with intent focus. "_We're one minute out from Kay's coordinates."_

"How exactly are we going to hide this dropship in a warzone?" Bo asked.

"_I'll get creative," _Shansa assured them.

Will shifted uneasily and unbuckled his safety harness. He grabbed onto the faux-leather hand-holds on the ceiling to keep his balance as he carefully made is way to the cockpit door and looked through the forward viewport. They were already flying over the outskirts of the city, and though much of it seemed untouched by the invasion, there were scattered locations that looked like they had been the target of orbital bombardments. But that was just what Will could see nearby. On the horizon were dozens of fires burning throughout the city and the unmistakable sign of superstructures toppled or ripped asunder by the Reapers' attacks.

Shansa gasped and pointed to a screen on the copilot's side of the cockpit. "Look at that."

One of the scanner's cameras was focusing on a Reaper at the far side of the city. It was one of the smaller variants that appeared to be suited more for the ground invasions, and it was being swarmed by dozens of dots. Will activated the zoom and squinted to see that the dots were in fact turian fighter craft mercilessly harassing the goliath.

"They're putting up a fight at least," Will said.

The shuttle rattled as a loud thump shook through its hull.

"Someone's taking potshots at us," Shansa grumbled. "And we're too close to the LZ for significant evasive action."

"How close?" Will asked.

Another thump, this one much more violent.

"Hold on!" She called in response.

Will had little under a second to grip onto one of the safety straps dangling from the ceiling before Shansa threw the Kodiak into a tight turn. The shuttle's thrusters whined as afterburners kicked in to keep them in the trajectory that she demanded. The turn ended just suddenly as the rear thrusters cut to near idle and the forward thrusters burned to slow them as quickly as possible. Will managed a glimpse through the forward viewport and saw why: the Kodiak was barreling toward a gnarled and smoldering building that grew larger by the second.

"Hold on!" Shansa repeated, this time at an almost frantic shout.

The shuttle jerked ninety degrees as the thrusters cut out all together. Silence barely had time to fill the cabin before the Kodiak slammed into something with a loud crunch and sent Will flying to the floor. Worried that there might be another sudden movement, Will sat motionlessly for a few seconds before Shansa's words sent him scrambling to his feet.

"Wooh! Thread that needle!" She yelped excitedly.

Before Will could get to his knees Eleena had jumped from her seat to place a hand on his shoulder. He looked up appreciatively as she helped him to his feet and gave her a pained smile.

"Thanks," he grunted.

"You okay?" She asked, holding back a laugh.

"Might have a bruise on my arm," Will muttered. "Probably shoulda stayed in my seat."

Shansa unbuckled herself and jumped up from her own. "I told you to hold on!"

Bo and Kallux were on their feet as well and double checking their weapons as Shansa grabbed her rifle from its rack on the wall.

"Where did we land?" Will asked.

Shansa darted past them and tapped a button on the door's control panel, sending the hatch hissing open and sliding up. Will blinked in confusion to see they were looking at what appeared to be the interior of a recently abandoned office. The squad stepped forward and down to the floor where scattered debris and overturned desks littered what had once been a nondescript, dully-lit room of cubicles. Will walked around to the nose of the Kodiak to look back in the other direction and stopped in his tracks. He stared out into the open air through a hole in the side of the building that, given the look of the surrounding wreckage, had been caused by something simply tearing a few stories-worth of the building's side off. Eleena stepped up behind him and peered over his shoulder for a second before looking back to Shansa.

"Not bad."

"That's it? Not bad?" Shansa asked, clearly pretending to be offended.

The asari grinned. "I've seen better. From _you _as a matter of fact."

Kallux reached to his back and retrieved his cannon. "Not to draw away from your ego, Shansa, but we should get moving. There's no promising they won't find the Kodiak."

Will readied his rifle but continued to look out over the city. "Where are we headed?"

"That depends on where they are," Shansa answered as she activated her omnitool. "Let me see if I can get anything on the short-range signals."

Bo slung his sniper rifle over his shoulder and shook his head as he joined Will in surveying the damage. "That's a lot of ground to cover."

"Hopefully we won't have to cover all of it," Will replied.

"We won't!" Shansa interjected. "I've got them! Patching the signal through."

A static pop prefaced an nervous T'Lees. "_I hear you, Shansa! We are with some other survivors nearby the coordinates Kay sent you yesterday. I will send you a tracking beacon now."_

"Is everything okay?" Shansa asked quickly.

"_We are alive and well," _T'Lees replied. "_But we have been fighting off both Reaper forces and opportunistic gangs for nearly two days straight."_

A new waypoint appeared on their HUD as Shansa accepted their transmission. "We're on our way."

"Everyone ready?" Kallux asked.

"As I'll ever be," Eleena replied with an excited flex of her shoulders.

Will finally turned away from the vista of wreckage to join the squad as they fell in behind Kallux and marched toward what looked like the room's main entrance. Then, a split second later, Will met their enemy for the first time.

"Contact!"


End file.
